Florida Chupacabra, NASA Conspiracy Theories, Howie Mandel's UFOs, Sailing Iguanas and More Mysterious News Briefly

A roundup of mysterious, paranormal and strange news stories from the past week.

The long-awaited release of the “final” batch of documents from the US government files on the assassination of President John F Kennedy has occurred but the 1,123 documents (64,000 pages) are still missing some of the promised 80,000 pages and some of those released are redacted, another promise broken; many of the documents are faded or are poorly scanned copies, so the public, experts and conspiracy theorists will be working long and hard to find anything new in this case that has defied resolution for over 60 years; according to author James Johnston (“Murder, Inc.: The CIA under John F. Kennedy”), the release does not include the transcript of the first conversation between President Lyndon Johnson and CIA Director John McCone after the assassination; researcher David Barrett of Villanova University reviewed the material and called it "useful" but lacking "earth-shaking information, either with regard to the assassination or more broadly". Is the real killer breathing a posthumous sigh of relief?

Anita Mitchell, the ex-wife of Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who was a well-known believer in UFOs and aliens, confirmed his views in a recent interview, saying “He always felt there were UFOs out there, because many pilots and astronauts had seen something"; those included astronauts James McDivitt, who saw UFOs on his space missions, and astronaut Gordon Cooper, who saw a UFO while flying in a conventional aircraft; Anita Mitchell is also a believer, stating "Do you really think we're the only intelligence in the universe? Because if we are, the universe is in trouble"; she tells more in her new book, “You Don't Look Like an Astronaut's Wife!”

Residents of Saladillo near Buenos Aires, Argentina, are concerned about a video circulating on local media and social media of what appears to be a humanoid creature moving around on all fours on a dark street; the humanoid was initially reported by a woman who said she thought at first it was a child but became alarmed when it followed her car at a high speed; she then noticed people running away from the being and yelling that it was following them; local media contacted the local police who received another report of a child perched high on a wall – an event which they witnessed when answering the call; the video circulated after that, generating speculation on social media that the being was a werewolf, a demonic child walking backward, a lobizon which is a local wolfman legend affecting seventh sons in families, or an elaborate hoax. As usual, bad videos make the best stories and the worst proof.

Psychic Anne Jirsch, from Maidenhead in Berkshire, England, says she’s heard enough reports on orbs and dots from clients who say they see them on and around smartphones, PCs, televisions and other electronics that she now believes these are visible signs that spirits have learned to tap into the electro-magnetic fields surrounding these electronic objects and are using them to make contact instead of old-fashioned Ouija boards, tarot cards or other methods; she describes this as the modern version of an old phenomenon: “In my gran’s day, before the digital era, spirits let us know they were around by flickering lights. Now, modern technology gives the spirit world a whole host of new ways to make contact. Who would have thought the afterlife would move with the times? But it’s happening, so maybe the next time you receive a blank text take note”. Should nervous people switch back to a flip phone?

The search for the identity and whereabouts of infamous hijacker D.B. Cooper, who absconded with a plane, parachutes and ransom money before jumping out and disappearing in 1971, has taken a new twist as reports now say the focus on the clip-on tie left behind by Cooper has switched from DNA to radiation as FBI scientist Tom Kaye and Cooper investigator Eric Ulis revealed the tie contains rare particles of a combination of thorium and uranium which Ulis describes as "single most important particle ever discovered on Cooper's tie" because “it appears to relate to an alloy that was being worked on in the latter half of the 1960s as a prospective nuclear fuel for a very specific type of nuclear reactor called a molten salt reactor"; that particle could have come from the now shut down specialty metals company Rem-Cru Titanium in Pittsburgh where a leading Cooper suspect, Vince Peterson, worked as an engineer. We’ll never get a smoking gun so we may have to do with a glowing particle.

In a new documentary, 'The Age of Disclosure' (directed by filmmaker Dan Farah and premiered at the recent SXSW film festival in Austin, Texas), Jay Stratton, former Director of the Government UAP Task Force, says “I have seen with my own eyes non-human craft and non-human beings” and Christopher Mellon, a former Department of Defense official, says that the truth about aliens is “the biggest discovery in human history”; in all, 34 American military, government and intelligence personnel claim in the film to have direct knowledge or experience with of extraterrestrials; unfortunately, these same people admit that their evidence is too highly classified to present in the documentary; as of this writing, the SFSX festival hosted the only showing of 'The Age of Disclosure' because the producers have not yet secured a distributor. It’s roadblocks like this that make one wonder if we have made any progress at all since Roswell.

While we haven’t heard of any new Tic Tac UFOs on Earth recently, the NASA Mars Curiosity Rover Cam sent back a photo on Sol 2692 (March 3, 2020) that an intrepid Mars photo watcher enlarged and found what appears to be a Tic Tac UFO traveling or hovering above the surface of the Red Planet; the object is smooth, pale white in color, and shaped like the famous UFO-inspiring breath mint; it even appears to cast a shadow on the Martian soil beneath it; commenters on Reddit run the gamut from Tic Tac UFO believers to “It’s a rock” disdainers; there is no known comment from NASA on the image. There is also no known comment from Elon Musk, but it’s probably safe to assume he wants to believe.

It has often been said that one is not truly famous until their face appears on a postage stamp (if you’re unfamiliar with these, ask your grandfather), so the Loch Ness Monster is officially famous, along with seven other British cryptids and mythical creatures set to be honored on a new series of Royal Mail stamps; the stamps will feature images (no photos, unfortunately) of the Loch Ness monster, Beowulf and Grendel, Blodeuwedd (a flower-faced creature), Cornish piskies (fairies), Fionn mac Cumhaill (a magical warrior), Black Shuck (ghostly black dog), a grindylow (horned water demon) and a selkie (shapeshifting seal). It’s an interesting time when we know more about the mythical creatures on the stamps than we do about the use of the stamps themselves.

Comedian, actor and television personality Howie Mandel is the latest celebrity to share a personal UFO encounter story – Mandel reveals in a recently released video his images of luminous orbs moving around the sky taken from inside a plane’s cockpit at 45,000 feet while flying over Texas; Mandell explains how the orbs materialize and get brighter, then the pilot says they turn, stop, and restart a number of times before they vanish; Mandel then sees other orbs near the first, which the pilot can’t explain, saying, “I don't know, man"; Mandel revealed on a podcast in 2023 he and his wife had with another UFO while driving near Toronto when Howie was in his 20s (40 years ago); he said, “I thought ‘Oh my God there is a giant accident way up ahead’. Because I saw this line, half a mile wide, of all these flashing lights. I thought it was a lineup of ambulances or first responders or whatever. As I got closer and closer, that whole line of lights, quicker than I can fathom, just shot into the sky and disappeared.” Even aliens want a chance to audition for ‘America’s Got Talent’.

The South Florida Wildlands Association posted on social media a photo of a mysterious creature allegedly taken by a trail camera on public lands in Southwest Florida that the sender asked for help identifying; the SFWA said the “paws seem too small for a panther” and noted that “the muzzle is also a bit strange in this photo - from that by itself, seems like it could be canid or felid.”; comments gravitated to the ever-popular but rarely verified red-eyed chupacabra because the eyes appeared to be glowing, or some other shapeshifting cryptid; on the wild animal side were suggestions of panther, bobcat, dog, raccoon and feral cat; without another clearer photo or physical evidence, the SFWA and the commenters are baffled. Since it’s Florida, it could be Florida Man cosplaying.

While genetic engineers work to bring back the extinct woolly mammoth using hairy mice, archeologists digging in a valley near St. Pölten, Austria, discovered that their extinction may have been helped 25,000 years ago by prehistoric hunters and butchers – the site contains the remains of at least five mammoths and possibly several dozen more that were cut up using stone tools which were also discovered at the site;  one researcher told the Austrian news agency APA that the vertebrae and long bones were missing, indicating that butchers sorted out and processed the remains at this location, noting that “The people understood the animals and knew when they moved in this valley", making it a perfect location to ambush and butcher them.  If they find bread, mustard and butcher paper, this may have been the first deli.

In what has to be the most conspiracy-filled space mission ever, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams finally returned to Earth after spending nine months on the International Space Station on a trip that was only scheduled to last a week; the first conspiracies had to do with the Boeing Starliner capsule which endured problems on the ground and some others (probably more than we know of) on the trip, forcing delays in their return on the craft until it was finally deemed unsafe and sent back uncrewed; while some media sources called the astronauts ‘stranded’ on the ISS and in need of rescue, others pointed out that there was plenty of food and projects for them to do while NASA scheduled their return; upon splashdown, many conspiracy theorists questioned why the pair seemed thinner, haggard and disheveled – as if they should be fresh and fit after nine months in space; the final (maybe) conspiracy involved a pod of dolphins which seemed to circle the capsule like a welcoming party – some suggested NASA put the dolphins there while other thought they looked AI-generated. It’s almost as if every spaceflight has a subplot that can be used for a future television show … hmmm.

The Bermuda Triangle gets all of the publicity when it comes to three-sided areas where strange phenomena happen, but that may change as the number of disappearances there have gone down while a lesser-known British trilateral area, the Wold Newton Triangle which runs from Scarborough down to Driffield and stretches east towards Flamborough to include some water, gets its own exhibition at Beverley Guildhall called Boggles, Ghosts and Ragwells; the third most important area of ritual monuments in Britain (after Salisbury Plain and Orkney) is centered around the 8-meter (26 foot) Rudston Monolith which had many skulls buried at its base; according to Fiona Jenkinson, curator at Beverley Guildhall, there are many ragwells (water wells) in the area to attract boggles (mystical spirits), ghosts and fairies; according to local legend, if one runs around the Willy Howe barrow (a hill covering burial grounds) nine times without stopping and then put their ear to it, they will hear the singing and dancing of the fairies. Do that in the Bermuda Triangle and you get swimmer’s ear.

Sir Demis Hassabi, a British artificial intelligence (AI) researcher, CEO and co-founder of Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs, and a Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry (shared with another) for his AI research contributions for protein structure prediction, predicts in a new interview that humans could be made “obsolete” by artificial intelligence systems by 2035, at which time it will have evolved into AGI – Artificial General Intelligence or Human-level AI – and out-think, out-reason and out-plan us, eventually destroying us and ruling the world. If AI will need only 10 years to replace a Nobel Prize winner in artificial intelligence, that means it's already smarter than a lot of us – especially politicians.

British media reports that Danny Shaw was leaving work at Cummins Engine Plant in Darlington, England, when he saw a number of bright orbs in the sky, which he had the presence of mind to record on a cell phone and provide to the media and social media; at first he thought “it was a really large plane low down to land at Teesside Airport but when it got closer I realized it couldn't be that"; since he was near the Catterick army base which is home to the largest infantry unit of  British Army, he suspected weapons or flares, but there was no official explanation given by the military. In this age of high-tech weapons, can the military please replace these old flares and make UFO spotting a little easier?

From the ‘What Could Possibly Go Wrong?’ file’s ‘Duh’ section comes an announcement from the Australian biotech company Cortical Labs (the company working on de-extincting the woolly mammoth) that it has completed the world’s first commercial computer that combines a silicon processor with human brain cells – the CL1 has human neurons in a life support system integrated with computer processors; after being fed information collected from cameras or other data input devices, the neurons respond just like a human brain, thus eliminating the need for animals in brain experiments; the company says the CL1 will help speed up machine learning, and all for the low, low price of only $35,000. At that price, any old Dr. Frankenstein can stop relying on assistants named Igor (that’s Eye-gor) and get their own Promethean brain.

If someone tells you to ‘Go sniff a statue’, it may not be an insult but instead an invitation to live like the ancient Greeks and Romans who, according to a new study published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, covered their statues with perfume and perfumed oils to make them smell alive and fragrant like a real god or goddess; study author Cecilie Brons said she found inscriptions at Greece’s Sanctuary of Delos listing perfume ingredients, such as olive oils, beeswax, and natron, that were used on statues of Artemis and Hera; the poet Callimachus described a statue of Queen Berenice II of Egypt as being “moist with perfume”; techniques to apply the scents include ganosis, where waxes oils are mixed to make them spreadable and less harmful to painted statues, and kosmesis, which used olive oil to protect statuary ivory. This seems like a good idea until one remembers that one of the most famous statues in the U.S. is the Philadelphia depiction of a post-workout Rocky Balboa.

We’re impressed with stories of ancient sailors crossing the Pacific to inhabit remote islands or intrepid mariners sailing around the world, but a new study found that the lowly iguana lizard made the longest-known transoceanic trip of any terrestrial species 34 million years ago when a group of them clung to fallen trees and other vegetation and sailed over 5,000 miles, one-fifth of the way around the world from North America to the volcanic islands of Fiji not long after they were formed; Fiji's iguanas are the only iguanas outside the Western Hemisphere, so the study conducted a genome-wide DNA sequence on DNA collected from over 200 iguana specimens from museums around the world and found that the Brachylophus genus in Fiji is most closely related to lizards in the Diposaurus genus found in desert iguanas of North America, which are adapted to extreme heat and could survive the long trip to the islands. Think about that the next time you get bored on a 7-day cruise.