The fight over the science of an ancient Indonesian landmark has taken another turn in the archeological community—a controversial October 2023 study claiming that Gunung Padang is a pyramid created by humans 27,000 years ago was recently fully retracted from Wiley, the publishers of the journal Archaeological Prospection.

On one side, a robust range of leading archeologists seem perplexed on how the study ever made it past peer review and into print in the first place. On the other side, the team of authors call the retraction “unjust” and based on “unfounded claims raised by third parties who hold differing opinions and disbelieve in the evidence, analysis, and conclusions.”

Let’s go back to the science.

The Gunung Padang site in West Java, Indonesia, includes a raised earth site. The paper’s authors—led by Danny Natawidjaja—claim that it is the remnants of a prehistoric pyramid from up to 27,000 years ago, far surpassing the oldest known pyramid in the world at a mere 4,700 years old. The team based much of their findings on radiocarbon dating from core drilling. But the retraction says that the dating has no tie to human interaction, especially in a place not believed to have been inhabited at the time the paper’s authors say humans were hand-forming the pyramid.

It all adds up to an article with a “major error,” the publishers write in the retraction. “This error,” they say, “which was not identified during peer review, is that the radiocarbon dating was applied to soil samples that were not associated with any artifacts or features that could be readily interpreted as anthropogenic or ‘man-made.’ Therefore, the interpretation that the site is an ancient pyramid built 9,000 or more years ago is incorrect, and the article must be retracted.”

...

Add in the fact that there’s been no evidence of an advanced civilization at that site since the last ice age. While the soil samples may well be from 27,000 years ago, without the telltale signs of human activity—think charcoal or bone fragments—those skeptical of the study say there’s no reason to believe there was any sort of large settlement in the area during that time.

Natawidjaja and his team aren’t budging. They claim the soil samples “have been unequivocally established as man-made constructions” that feature three distinct phases of construction. They claim the shapes, composition, and arrangement of the stone bolsters the argument.

...

To complicate the skirmish a bit more, politics comes into play. The Gunung Padang hilltop site is a travel destination for those practicing Islamic and Hindu rituals, and more than a decade ago—according to The New York Times—the Indonesian government was funding the narrative that the site was an ancient pyramid. Graham Hancock interviewed Natawidjaja during a Netflix documentary, Ancient Apocalypse, that aired in 2022, and he promoted the site then as an ancient pyramid.

Hancock now supports Natawidjaja and denounced the retraction, but the Society for American Archaeology wrote an open letter arguing that Hancock’s documentary “devalues the archaeological profession on the basis of false claims and disinformation.”

The fight over Gunung Padang seemingly predates the controversial study.

Camps on both sides feel strongly about their position, and the middle ground of archeologists simply don’t believe the study’s evidence supports the conclusions. “It was unfortunate that the paper had to get to this stage,” Noel Tan, a Bangkok archaeologist who had concerns about the study, told The New York Times. “But it was better to be retracted than to have nothing said about it at all.”

Evesham and Villages Big Cat Group has 513 members and rising as people share their experiences of sightings in the county after Martin Burford revealed two of his own close encounters.

Members have also shared other evidence of big cats, including the carcasses of prey and footprints.

Those who have seen the big cats themselves argue fear of being disbelieved may be what stops more witnesses from speaking openly about sightings.

Even experts have not ruled out the possibility of the big cats roaming through the remoter parts of the county, including the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust. They just say more conclusive proof has yet to be found.

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One of the founders of Evesham and Villages Big Cats Group on Facebook, Mandy Acres, has lived in Evesham all her life.

The 37-year-old said: "The reason I created the group was because I had a sighting in August 2013. Whilst I did not report the sighting at the time, not fear of being disbelieved but I didn’t want any harm to come to the animal by telling everyone where I saw it.

"In the last few years I’ve seen stories on and off about sightings and my sister Beckie Gurney who is also an admin on the group had a friend who had seen large footprints and a deer carcass.

"So after this, I set the group up."

Her sighting happened in August 2013 at 6.40am when she was travelling between Offenham and Badsey via Aldingto

Mrs Acres said: "I had taken this route about the same time every day that week so knew there were no animals in the fields I passed.

"One morning on my way through on this road I saw something black to my right.

"Immediately I thought “oh, the farmer has put a black sheep in the field” then the animal turned and started to run away from me, which made me think “someone’s black dog is loose!”

"It wasn’t until my car had got 20 yards side on to the animal that I saw it was 1000 per cent a big black cat.

"The gait was the same as a cats not a dogs, it was roughly the size of an Alsatian dog, the head and ears were smaller in comparison to the body but the tail which was thick, as long as the body and in a fixed low bend position which made me immediately realise “oh my god it’s a big cat!”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17457794

"Although the long chain of custody for this specimen cannot be verified, public and media interest in the specimen warranted a transparent investigation that adhered to the scientific method,” the report said. “The specimen’s physiochemical properties are claimed to make the material capable of “inertial mass reduction” (i.e., levitation or antigravity functionality), possibly attributable to the material’s bismuth and magnesium layers acting as a terahertz waveguide.”

"Many experimental [magnesium] alloys failed for reasons not well understood at the time of testing, e.g., stress corrosion cracking,” the AARO said in its press release. “Unsurprisingly, records of failed [magnesium] alloy designs are scant. Neither AARO nor ORNL could verify the specimen’s historical origin. Unverifiable, conflicting personal accounts complicate its undocumented chain of custody.”

Neither the press release nor the Oak Ridge report mention Roswell, New Mexico, but pinpointing the recovery date of the material to 1947 makes it likely that whoever gave the sample to To The Stars has claimed that’s where it came from.

“This specimen has been publicly alleged to be a component recovered from a crashed extraterrestrial vehicle in 1947, and purportedly exhibits extraordinary properties, such as functioning as a terahertz waveguide to generate antigravity capabilities,” the AARO said in the press release. “Considering all available evidence, AARO assesses that this specimen is likely a test object, a manufacturing product or byproduct, or a material component of aerospace performance studies to evaluate the properties of [magnesium] alloys.”

https://gizmodo.com/pentagon-publishes-report-on-material-from-a-reported-alien-aircraft-2000469433?utm_source=press.coop

Martin Piper, 80, from Cheltenham, is not easily startled. However, he admitted to being slightly taken aback when he spotted a large cat just 30 yards away from him and his two dogs, Polly and Percy, in a field near Bentham Lane, in Bentham, earlier this month.

He says the animal was beige and brown with dark flecks and pointy ears, and a very wide face, like a feline and it was 'beautiful'. The field was a little difficult to access as you have to navigate two styles which have brambles on either side, however when you get to the field you are met with the sigh of a natural blanket of buttercups and foot tall grass.

...

"The animal was looking at me from the top of the long grass. What struck me is that I did not see the body. However the tail was stood up and curled round like a question mark.

"It was beautiful. It had light brown and beige fur with dark markings around the eyes. I do not think it was very strange to see it, there have been other reports of big cats being seen in Cheltenham over the years.

"I had been able to watch the animal for around ten seconds. The animal was close to a copse and must have run into the wooded area before I could get near the creature."

Mr Piper decided to get in touch with wildlife enthusiast Frank Tunbridge to discuss the big cat sighting in Bentham, near the A46 and A417 between Cheltenham and Brockworth.

No real evidence, just an encounter with what was probably a black bear.

A video has been released purporting to show a non-native black cat running through a field in the semi-darkness.

Martin Burford, the man who took the video in an unrevealed location on the Gloucestershire-Worcestershire border a year ago, has told Worcester News that it was a “panther”. He claimed there was a thriving population of these cats in the area and that this one had been attacking and killing lambs.

Leaving aside the issue of exactly what a panther is (the term is vague and refers to one of two species), does the video actually shows a non-native cat such as a leopard or jaguar?

BBC Wildlife has shown the video to Dr Luke Hunter, executive director of the Big Cats Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), one of the world’s foremost conservation groups – and he says it doesn’t.

“It’s a moggy,” Hunter says. “The gait is very much a small cat’s, not a leopard or another big cat’s.”

...

“It amazes me that these claims persist,” says Hunter. “If there were big cats in the UK countryside, it would be almost unavoidable that unequivocal evidence would emerge.”

Some strong evidence – though arguably not conclusive beyond all doubt – did emerge in May when the DNA of a cat in the Panthera genus was found on a swab taken from a sheep carcass in Cumbria. In 2022, a hair found on barbed wire in Gloucestershire was identified as belonging to a leopard.

A Maldives minister has been arrested for allegedly performing “black magic” on President Mohamed Muizzu.

Maldives Police on Thursday said State Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Energy, Fathimath Shamnaz Ali Saleem, and two others were arrested on Sunday from the capital Male

Cops said Shamnaz has been remanded in custody for a week pending investigations.

“There have been reports that Shamnaz was arrested for performing black magic on President Dr Mohamed Muizzu,” the Sun, a local media outlet, said.

...

Sorcery is not a criminal offence under the penal code in the Muslim-majority Maldives, but it does carry a six-month jail sentence under Islamic law.

People across the archipelago widely practice traditional ceremonies, believing they can win favours and curse opponents.

A 62-year-old woman was stabbed to death by three neighbours on Manadhoo in April 2023 after she was accused of conducting black magic ceremonies, the Mihaaru news site reported last week, after a lengthy police investigation.

A woman out walking in the Forest of Dean was staggered to see a herd of deer being chased down by what she believes was a wolf. She had expected to maybe see a wild boar or even a polecat, yet not for one moment did she expect to see a wolf from just a few metres away and in broad daylight.

...

"I decided I was going to go on up ahead on to Verderers trail. When I got near the track at the top, about ten deer were running from my left out of the woods onto the track, and in the middle of them there was a wolf."

April could not believe all she was seeing. The deer and wolf were so close for a moment and she was able watch on as the deer made their way down the track with a wolf hot on their heels.

April said: "The deer and wolf was about two metres away from me. They were running down the track and was at the top.

"The wolf was bigger than the deer, and its colours really stood out. The fur of the wolf was grey and it had dark flecks towards it lower back and its tail was so bushy.

"The deer and the wolf had run off and into the bracken. I was there just speechless until my partner had caught up with me.

...

Keen to find out if there have been any more sightings of wolves in Gloucestershire, April contacted wildlife expert Frank Tunbridge.

Frank, 76, from Podsmead said: "A walk in the woods in the Forest of Dean can be an interesting and enlightening experience where our native wildlife is concerned. Especially if they are lucky enough to encounter some of the varied bird species, deer, or even see a wild boar or two, if you happen to be in the right place at the right time.

"l received an email from a lady outlining her experience of suddenly seeing a small herd of deer being hotly pursued by a wolf. After, when back home she checked out wolf images, and they confirmed that the physical shape and colouration matched the animal that she had seen.

"Many people will discount her report, implying that it was probably a husky, or maybe a wolfdog. However over the years, I have had received quite had few similar reports from the Forest of Dean area, and in every case they were identified as displaying all the features and behaviour of a wolf.

"Wolves are very efficient predators, secretive, and great wanderers, who can scent a human on the wind from over a mile away, so are not often seen. When one crosses your path, it is a sight that you will remember forever, similar to encountering a British big cat, or a lynx , which also exist in Gloucestershire, and throughout the UK.

"Many exotic species, have now established themselves throughout wild places across the UK, after being dumped and released when the 1976 Dangerous Animals act came into force. The amount of prey species in the Forest of Dean, especially the over abundance of deer, rabbits, pheasants, and wild boar piglets being available, will fuel any large carnivore's diet for years."

A "mysterious monolith" has appeared in a desert north of Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department says the shiny, reflective structure – similar to one found in Utah years ago – was spotted by its search and rescue unit near Gass Peak over the weekend.

"We see a lot of weird things when people go hiking like not being prepared for the weather, not bringing enough water... but check this out!" police wrote on X alongside an image of the monolith.

The discovery comes months after a hiker in Wales captured a video of a mysterious "UFO"-like monolith on top of a hillside along the country’s border with England.

...

Similar monoliths also have been found in Belgium, Romania and the Isle of Wight – an island in the English Channel.

In November 2020, one of the monoliths, estimated at between 10 feet and 12 feet high, was found by Utah state wildlife employees who were counting sheep from a helicopter.

...

Then a week later, another monolith was discovered in Atascadero, California, which is north of Los Angeles.

It’s unclear who is behind the placement of the monoliths. A New Mexico artist collective claimed responsibility years ago.

Archive link

Previously: monolith in Powys

Earlier this week media across the country have reported a story of John Broomhead, 68, who spoke about a scary incident that happened to him when he was camping near Tansley in July 2022.

It has been reported that after a barbecue with friends, John went to put out the fire when he heard what he described as a ‘rustling noise’. He said that soon after he saw a ‘huge black shadow ’ which was three or four times bigger than a regular cat.

John said that he could see the 'bright yellow eyes’ of the creature coming towards him. It has been reported that John ‘threw himself into the caravan’ after the animal moved from 40 yards away to 20 yards from the man in ‘an instant’. John said that he ‘feared he could get killed’ and that the incident left him traumatised.

Rick Minter, the host of the Big Cat Conversations podcast and author of Big Cats Facing Britain’s Wild Predators spoke to the Derbyshire Times to discuss the incident.

Rick said: “I hope to be able to speak to John in person about this case, but from his reported comments it would seem he witnessed a black leopard, also called a black panther.

“In their native lands, leopards can do a warning charge when provoked or threatened. This is possibly what John experienced. Leopards attack by surging low to the ground at blistering speed, so from what he described it is much more likely to have been a charge to warn-off John.

“Black leopards are the main big cats described by people across Britain. When mated together two black adult leopards breed 100% black offspring. There are now a few DNA results to back up the UK witness reports.

Radio 1’s Sian Eleri will return to investigative work for BBC One and BBC Three's upcoming series, 'Paranormal: The Village That Saw Aliens.'

The series delves into strange happenings along the south-west coast of Wales during the 1970s and 1980s, dubbed the largest reported UFO and extra terrestrial activity in history.

Dozens of unconnected people in various locations spoke of terrifying sightings, sparking fear and intrigue.

The series, in particular, lays focus on a 1977 incident where 14 schoolboys in Broad Haven reported seeing a UFO in their school playground.

The boys' account, supported by similar drawings executed under exam conditions, set off a wave of unexplained happenings on the Welsh coastline.

Presenter Sian Eleri, initially a sceptic, delved deep into the historical incident, tracing the boys and the original investigator, Randall Jones-Pugh.

...

Mr Jones-Pugh's own words in an old VHS tape warn: "If the public knew the truth behind UFOs, they would run for their lives."

Ms Eleri also explores other theories, including the possibility of the boys spotting a military

The reported birth of a rare white buffalo in Yellowstone National Park fulfills a Lakota prophecy that portends better times, according to members of the American Indian tribe who cautioned that it’s also a signal that more must be done to protect the earth and its animals.

“The birth of this calf is both a blessing and warning. We must do more,” said Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and the Nakota Oyate in South Dakota, and the 19th keeper of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe and Bundle.

The birth of the sacred calf comes as after a severe winter in 2023 drove thousands of Yellowstone buffalo, also known as bison, to lower elevations. More than 1,500 were killed, sent to slaughter or transferred to tribes seeking to reclaim stewardship over an animal their ancestors lived alongside for millennia.

...

For the Lakota, the birth of a white buffalo calf with a black nose, eyes and hooves is akin to the second coming of Jesus Christ, Looking Horse said.

Lakota legend says about 2,000 years ago — when nothing was good, food was running out and bison were disappearing — White Buffalo Calf Woman appeared, presented a bowl pipe and a bundle to a tribal member, taught them how to pray and said that the pipe could be used to bring buffalo to the area for food. As she left, she turned into a white buffalo calf.

“And some day when the times are hard again,” Looking Horse said in relating the legend, “I shall return and stand upon the earth as a white buffalo calf, black nose, black eyes, black hooves.”

A similar white buffalo calf was born in Wisconsin in 1994 and was named Miracle, he said.

Troy Heinert, the executive director of the South Dakota-based InterTribal Buffalo Council, said the calf in Braaten’s photos looks like a true white buffalo because it has a black nose, black hooves and dark eyes.

“From the pictures I’ve seen, that calf seems to have those traits,” said Heinert, who is Lakota. An albino buffalo would have pink eyes.

A naming ceremony has been held for the Yellowstone calf, Looking Horse said, though he declined to reveal the name. A ceremony celebrating the calf’s birth is set for June 26 at the Buffalo Field Campaign headquarters in West Yellowstone.

...

Heinert sees the calf’s birth as a reminder “that we need to live in a good way and treat others with respect.”

“I hope that calf is safe and gonna live its best life in Yellowstone National Park, exactly where it was designed to be,” Heinert said.

The source of a mystery humming sound which has plagued people living in Omagh may now have been identified – but is not being made public.

People in the County Tyrone town first started to report a persistent humming that was keeping them them awake in the second half of last year.

A Fermanagh and Omagh District Council investigation has now ended.

John Boyle, the council’s director of community and wellbeing, said it had been “complex” but had been able to “hone in on a specific spot”.

Mr Boyle said the noise “wasn’t audible every night", and was linked to atmospheric conditions, making the investigation very difficult.

“We were able to hone in on a specific spot, and undertook a targeted screening exercise with a number of industrial businesses using equipment on a 24-hour basis," he said.

“However, a particular premises became the focus, and environmental health officers engaged with the management.

“While nothing was absolutely concluded, the noise did cease in a sense, but we will keep the complaint open and under review over the next number of months."

He told the council’s regeneration and community committee the council had received a total of 11 hum complaints.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16448379

The Bat Beast of Kent, sometimes referred to as the ‘Saltwood Mystery’, is often considered to be an extraterrestrial sighting. Let’s begin with the story as it is roughly retold today.

November 16th, 1963, Four teenagers were making their way home from a party through Sandling Lane. Something unusual in the sky caught their attention: a golden oval shaped orb, seemingly a few metres in diameter. The object was intensely bright, they began to run from it, and it followed them, before returning back to its original position, it then slowly descended behind some trees. Curious about what it might have been, the boys headed to where they thought the object had ‘Landed’, but all was now dark. Soon they heard some rustling and felt a change in the air to cold and ‘charged like static electricity’, they looked towards the sound to see a hairy figure, around 5 feet tall, headless, with bat-like wings and webbed feet shambling out of the trees.

...

It seems reasonable to think that there was no evidence of a deliberate hoax, there is some corroboration from the pub landlord that the original group were indeed spooked by the encounter, and there is a fair amount of consistency between the reports from the three boys. While additional sightings of the figure can be questioned as influenced by previous reports or even fabricated, there do appear to be some kind of unusual lights appearing with some frequency in the area, which may have various explanations, although none confirmed.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16418498

The group doesn’t seem terribly preoccupied with finding evidence of aliens, however. 

One prominent member of the group, Yoshiharu Asakawa, said that while UFOs have typically been viewed as “an occult matter,” there was the possibility that they were, in fact, “cutting-edge secret weapons or spying drones in disguise” that could “pose a significant threat to our nation’s security,” 

Japan was identified as a hub for unexplained aerial activity in a report issued last year by the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), a little-known office of the U.S. Defense Department. Since then, the country has become increasingly interested in investigating the phenomenon.

Japan’s efforts mirror similar efforts made by the U.S. and other Western countries in recent years.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16379352

The paper introduces the term "cryptoterrestrials" to refer to an ancient human culture—more technologically advanced than our own—that survived the cataclysms and has lived since in hiding.

A speculative new paper suggests that advanced "cryptoterrestrials" could be living secretly on Earth or in its near environs, like the moon.

It suggests the existence of a bizarre group of "intelligent beings concealed in stealth here on Earth (e.g., underground), and/or its near environs (e.g., the moon)." 

The study has been accepted for publication in Philosophy and Cosmology.

They suggest that one potential category of these beings are "human cryptoterrestrials," which are a "technologically advanced ancient human civilisation that was largely destroyed long ago (e.g., by flood), but continued to exist in remnant form."

Possible habitation sites, as per the paper, may be hidden within the Earth in places like volcanoes or deep oceanic trenches.

Astonishingly, this is nothing new. In 1993, Dr. Shirley Wright, known for having been personal assistant to Albert Einstein, claimed that the pilots aboard the now topical Roswell UFO crash incident of 1947 were "advanced human" beings living inside Earth.

A junior doctor has ended up with a new pet after a goldfish mysteriously appeared in his garden.

Dr Ben Beska, 33, from Newcastle, said he saw a group of magpies squawking in his garden on Saturday and went out to investigate when he spotted the fish lying in the grass.

The NHS cardiology doctor retrieved the fish and placed it in a freezer drawer filled with water, and intends to keep it as a pet.

"It's pretty mad really, finding a fish on the lawn. I have no idea how it got in the garden," Dr Beska said.

...

Dr Beska suspected a bird had picked up the fish from a nearby pond and dropped it while carrying it away.

However, he said, there were no ponds close by and he thought it must therefore have travelled a "reasonable distance".

New bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate aims to promote full public disclosure of government records and information related to unidentified aerial phenomena, commonly known as UFOs.

The “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act of 2023,” introduced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senators Mike Rounds (R-SD), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Todd Young (R-IN), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), establishes several key provisions to facilitate the release of government UFO records:

• It creates a new “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Collection” at the National Archives to centralize and preserve all U.S. government records related to unexplained aerial objects and phenomena.
• The legislation establishes a 9-member oversight board called the “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Review Board” to coordinate and oversee review and disclosure of UFO records. Board members, who require security clearances, must be impartial citizens without any prior involvement in government UFO programs.
• All government agencies must identify, organize, and prepare UFO records for disclosure to the review board and archives within 300 days. Records already publicly released cannot be re-classified or withheld.
• Grounds for postponement of disclosure are limited to harm to national security, intelligence sources, or foreign relations. However, the review board can override postponements.
• The board must create a “Controlled Disclosure Campaign Plan” that recommends a timeline and process for periodic review and public release of any postponed records.
• The government must disclose and exercise eminent domain over any “technologies of unknown origin” related to UFOs, even if held privately.
• The review board terminates in 2030 unless Congress extends it. Remaining provisions of the Act terminate once all UFO records have been released.
• $20 million is authorized to fund the Act’s provisions in Fiscal Year 2024.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15998182

The government is officially gearing up for the discovery of aliens, a move described as ‘long overdue’ by the UK’s leading UFO expert.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is currently researching how it will react to the so-called ‘black swan’ event that is discovering extraterrestrial life.

A black swan event is an unpredictable event that has wide-ranging consequences, but in hindsight appears to have been inevitable.

The report is investigating whether a plan already exists – none has ever been made public – what a plan would look like and how the UK can be ‘on the front foot’ should such an astounding scientific discovery finally be made.

It is being conducted over six months and will be finalised in July, at which point a new government could be in receipt of it.

For the past four and a half years, I’ve immersed myself in spaces occupied by conspiracy theorists.

What began as an attempt to understand the QAnon conspiracy movement quickly expanded into an exploration of a wide range of alternative belief systems.

These include, but are not limited to, discredited intellectuals who promote race science; butthole sunners who believe that by harnessing the sun’s rays, they live longer; and semen retention enthusiasts, which is a practice that discourages ejaculation as a way to boost testosterone levels.

Most researchers have understood conspiracy theories and alternative beliefs as being a product of poor education or misinformation spread on social media. But recent research has found that support for them exists regardless of educational level or income. Some of the most privileged people in U.S. society hold deeply conspiratorial beliefs, as do sports fans, yogis and video game enthusiasts.

While some many say that believing in UFOs or Bigfoot may not be that big of a problem, these ideas can lead to real-world harms. Butthole sunning, for example, has been linked with cancer.

...

Certain stigmatized narratives can also become tools wielded by politicians and media influencers who will say or do anything to make money and gain power.

For example, in their book “Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat,” Derek Berry, Matthew Remski and Julien Walker document the ways in which contemporary New Age spiritualism has been hijacked by social media influencers, who have then gone on to promote vaccine misinformation and foment government mistrust.

Social media platforms provide financial incentives for individuals creating the most engaging content. Of course, what’s engaging is not necessarily what’s accurate or truthful. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of these influencers became popular by suggesting that they had “sacred” or “secret” knowledge on how to defeat the virus.

It’s one way people can go from embracing seemingly harmless ideas, like Bigfoot, to becoming open to more radical beliefs like the Great Replacement Theory, which is the conspiracy theory that illegal immigrants are colluding with Democrats to change the racial demographics of America and, in doing so, shape future elections.

The intersection of politics and alternative beliefs is not a recent phenomenon.

Some of these beliefs, like the imaginary continent of Atlantis, were used by the Nazi party to create a link to a mythical pure race. Indeed, a key component of the Nazi’s rise to power was the promotion of ideas that today would be described as New Age mysticism – a spiritual movement that emphasizes magical experiences and the notion that spiritual forces connect everything in the universe.

Following the recent discovery of Panthera DNA on a sheep carcass in the Lake District, a woman from Burton-in-Kendal has sent in a photo of what she believes to have been a big cat in 2008.

86-year-old writer and local historian, Kath Hayhurst, was travelling in Dalton towards Hutton Roof Crags with her husband when they spotted a dead cat at the roadside near Plain Quarry.

She says she took the photograph in the day time of August, 2008 after a spate of black cat sightings in the area.86-year-old writer and local historian, Kath Hayhurst, was travelling in Dalton towards Hutton Roof Crags with her husband when they spotted a dead cat at the roadside near Plain Quarry.

She says she took the photograph in the day time of August, 2008 after a spate of black cat sightings in the area.

.Kath said: "We were driving by when we came across the cat laying by the roadside and quickly noticed its large size.

"We picked it up and put it in the boot of the car and took it home. I measured it from its ears to the tip of its tail and it was 22 inches.

"Its features were more like a domestic cat, rather than a zoo-like cat, however it was just a lot bigger.

Previously: DNA results and interview with the scientist.

Britain is facing a ghost shortage as ageing spirits are passing over to the "other side", according to a leading paranormal expert.

Dr Paul Lee believes that the UK's spectral heritage is in serious decline as many ghosts have become dormant or moved on.

The paranormal researcher and author shared: "Since January 2020 I've been contacting all the reportedly haunted locations on my app, and asking if the residents, owners or staff have experienced any unexplained activity."

He continued: "So far I've had almost 800 replies and even some supposedly highly haunted places like Conisbrough Castle in South Yorkshire, the Ettington Park Hotel in Stratford said to be one of the most haunted hotels in the UK and Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly, say they haven't experienced anything in the last few years."

...

He suggested: "It could be that a spirit had a natural source of energy to begin with which has dwindled away over time, leaving them without the reserves to manifest anymore."

However, Dr Lee, who hails from Fairstead, Norfolk, and holds a PhD in nuclear physics, offered a glimmer of hope, stating: "It may be that ghosts can be recharged."

He concluded: "You sometimes hear stories of ghosts suddenly appearing again after many years' absence."

Follow-up on previous piece:

A recent report has lent credence to the idea leopards are stealthily roaming around rural areas.

Findings by Professor Robin Allaby, a biologist at the University of Warwick, suggest big cat DNA has been identified on a sheep carcass in Cumbria.

For years there have been a handful of sightings reported in the region. But is this DNA finding finally the definitive proof we need?

We talked to Prof Allaby about his findings, the science involved and how confident he is about his results.

Prof Allaby said he was relatively confident the sample had not been faked for two main reasons.

Mr Minter has long been sending him samples and was always disappointed by Prof Allaby's analysis revealing the DNA belonged to a fox or a dog.

Secondly - very little DNA was present on the sample, he said.

"If this were a fake, I would expect plenty of DNA to be present in order that we would be sure to find it," he said.

"It would be very difficult to plant just a few molecules with any finesse – I don’t think I could do it, let alone a lay person."

However due to such a small of DNA present, Prof Allaby said there was not enough information to determine what type of big cat it came from.

He said more samples were needed before he could definitively say a big cat roamed Cumbria.

"[However] on the balance of probabilities, I think this a genuine hit," he said.

He added that he did not believe there was enough data to publish a paper on his findings yet.

But Dr Egil Droge, a researcher in predator-prey relationships at the University of Oxford, is more sceptical of the findings.

He said if there really was a big cat in Cumbria, "where has it gone?"

"There haven't been any good photos of big cats from the area, not a spray of reports of killed sheep.

"I would like to see more, and repeated, convincing evidence," he said.

Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old programmer who died of leukemia in 2006, is set to be the first millennial saint, according to a new report from the Catholic News Agency Thursday. Acutis created websites documenting purported miracles and has been dubbed “God’s influencer” since his death.

Anyone who’s going to become a saint in the Catholic Church needs to be recognized as having performed at least two miracles, even if those miracles happened after the saint’s death. Pope Francis acknowledged Acutis’s second miracle on Thursday, according to the Catholic News Agency.

The miracle involved a 21-year-old girl from Costa Rica named Valeria Valverde who was studying in Italy, where Acutis lived. Valverde suffered a head injury in 2022 from a bicycle accident and had to undergo surgery, but her mother went to pray at the tomb of Carlo Acutis, where his body is publicly displayed.

From the Catholic News Agency:

Six days after the accident, Valeria’s mother went on a pilgrimage to Assisi to pray for the healing of her daughter at the tomb of Blessed Carlo Acutis, leaving a written note.

On that same day, Valeria began to breathe on her own and on the following day she recovered the use of her upper limbs and partly recovered her speech.

Valeria was discharged from the intensive care unit 10 days after her mother’s pilgrimage and underwent further tests that showed that the hemorrhagic right temporal cortical contusion in her brain had completely disappeared.

Contrary to medical predictions, Valeria spent only one week in physical therapy and on Sept. 2, 2022, two months after her accident, she went on a pilgrimage to Carlo Acutis’ tomb in Assisi with her mother to celebrate her complete healing.

The first miracle attributed to Acutis happened in 2013 and was recognized by the pope in 2020. That miracle involved a boy in Brazil who was reportedly healed of a rare pancreatic condition.

His tomb:

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15615604

Recent years have seen increasing public attention regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). Hypotheses for such phenomena tend to fall into two classes: a conventional terrestrial explanation (e.g., human-made drones), or an extraterrestrial explanation (i.e., advanced civilizations from elsewhere in the cosmos).

However, there is also a third minority class of hypothesis: an unconventional terrestrial explanation, outside the prevailing consensus view of life and the universe. This is the “ultraterrestrial” hypothesis, which includes – but is not limited to – the “interdimensional” hypothesis, namely the highly speculative notion that UAP may reflect activities of beings from other dimensions that coexist alongside our own.

Such hypotheses may rightly be regarded with scepticism by most scientists. However, this article suggests they nevertheless should not be ruled out, and deserve serious consideration in a spirit of epistemic humility and openness.