People in Asia have seen the longest total solar eclipse this century, with large areas of India and China plunged into darkness.
Amateur stargazers and scientists travelled far to see the eclipse, which lasted six minutes and 39 seconds at its maximum point.
The eclipse could first be seen early on Wednesday in eastern India.
It then moved east across India, Nepal, Burma, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Japan and the Pacific.
The eclipse first became total over India at 0053GMT, and was last visible from land at Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific nation of Kiribati. It ended at 0418GMT.
Elsewhere, a partial eclipse was visible across much of Asia.
I am saddened and shocked to hear that an old friend of mine, David Kingston, died yesterday.
David has been a UFO researcher since 1976, and claims he first saw UFOs (Ords) while serving with the Royal Air Force in this country, America, the Pacific and the Far East.
In the late 80′s he began to investigate Crop Circles for a possible link after reports of spheres of light were seen hovering over fields prior to a crop circle appearing.
He later went on to run CPI (Crop Phenomena Investigations) and became the Dorset Convenor for the CCCS (Centre for Crop Circle Studies).
Then in the mid 90′s, having lectured on the subject of UFOs, Crop Circles and Conspiracies for many years, David started the very popular yearly conference in Dorchester, which has now run for over ten years.
This years conference had been put on hold following recent news that David was very ill with terminal cancer. I think this has come as a great shock to everybody who new him, and he will be sadly missed by all.
I’d like to pass on my condolences to his family and wife Mary.
Talk about hype and conspiracy theory! At some point yesterday I received an email saying Atlantis had been found on Google Earth! Unbelievable I thought as I rushed to launch Google Earth and enter the coordinates 31 15’15.53N 24 15’30.53W – to my surprise it indeed did look like a road or street system on the sea bed. But, after zooming in and out a bit to get my bearings, I realised that if this really was evidence of an ancient road system or street plan, then the Atlantians must have be huge!
Atlantis? Probably not as the roads or streets would be huge! Note 30 mile long Madeira, top right.
If you look at the screen grab above, you will see the alleged Atlantis at the bottom left. It is worth noting similar lines near the middle and to the right, but more interestingly is the islands near the top right. That’s Madeira, the largest island of the Portuguese archipelago and approximately 30 miles (57 km) long by 13 miles (22 km) wide.
Putting that into perspective makes it hard to believe that this could be Atlantis, no matter how hard you try. Shame though, as it is near one of the most likely locations (see Location hypotheses of Atlantis).
What does Google say? Well to quote the last paragraph from CNET, and because I don’t really want to waist my time with this anymore:
When it comes to Atlantis, Google totally had to rain on everyone’s parade. “It’s true that many amazing discoveries have been made in Google Earth, including a pristine forest in Mozambique that is home to previously unknown species and the remains of an ancient Roman villa,” a statement from Google read. “In this case, however, what users are seeing is an artifact of the data collection process. Bathymetric (or sea floor terrain) data is often collected from boats using sonar to take measurements of the sea floor. The lines reflect the path of the boat as it gathers the data.”
This sounds very nasty indeed. Apparently an Australian woman has been killed by her pet camel after it tried to have sex with her!
This has to be a Fortean moment if ever I have heard of one. It’s just a shame that it is such an unfortunate story and my feeling are with the woman’s family, friends and loved ones.
Pet related deaths are nothing new and range from the not surprised pet Crocodile, Lion and Snake incidents, to the weird and wonderful pet Cow, Goat and Mouse related fatalities.
I think it is clear that some animals should never be considered pets, you can keep them by all means – but as soon as you start to turn your back on a natural predator, you have to understand you could be its next meal, or dare I say partner!
A giant underpants-wearing, doughnut-waving Homer Simpson has been painted on the hill next to the famous 180ft carving of the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset.
The painting, a promotional stunt for the upcoming Simpsons movie has upset some, and amused others.
Pagans have condemned the stunt as disrespectful, and plan to perform “rain magic” to wash away the water-based biodegradable character.
The landlord of the local pub the New Inn said it was different, but had not heard any complaints so far – he also added that he wasn’t sure if many of the locals would actually know who Homer was anyway!
What ever your views, I personally can’t help thinking the money spent on the stunt could have been used for an alternative form of publicity!
Perhaps a giant doughnut shaped crop circle for instance?
This weeks UFO Monday is actually on Tuesday! Sorry about that…
UFO or kids balloon? Amateur photographer Ray Gilbert reckons he caught more than one flying object on camera when a Dakota aeroplane completed a flypast over Grantham Carnival on Saturday.
[inspic=39,right,,0]A new type of hammerhead shark has been discovered in the north-western Atlantic Ocean.
The shark resembles a common scalloped hammerhead, but genetic studies have discovered that it is "cryptic" – that is, "genetically distinct" from the common scalloped species.
The yet to be classified or named shark, breed only in waters off South Carolina, although adults appear to swim into waters off Florida and North Carolina. Scientists plan to tag the shark so they can understand more about its range.
[inspic=54,right,,thumb]Space Shuttle Discovery has been given the all clean for take off.
The US Space Agency has approved the changes to the fuel tank, which means Discovery could be good to go on the 1st July. Although an offical date will be releast ealy next week.
