The Mysterious Russian Wilderness

We're already almost halfway through September and I haven't posted a thing. I blame it on being so busy, but this happened last year and I'm going to do my best to get posting!

One thing I've been doing when the day is done on Mondays is watching Siberia. It's been on for weeks now and is wrapping up. I think NBC put it in as a filler show, but it's a good time. It reminds me of Lost and the Blair Witch Project mixed together with a dash of X-Files tossed in.

It's a mockumentary about a group of people who thought they were signing up for a reality show in which they had to survive the wilds of Siberia in order to win half a million dollars. Pretty soon it becomes clear this isn't the case, however, as various producers and people working on the show are mysteriously killed off. The characters on the show soon realize it's up to them to get out of there, but there are a lot of barriers in the way. Strange things keep happening like the sky lights up green, it snows about a foot overnight after being in the 80s the day before, a dead tiger is found in the woods, and one they are being hunted by a weird group called the Valley Men.

The show is about to wrap up and I'm wondering how they're going to make it out. I will definitely miss my Monday nights with Siberia.

On a side note, my friend sent me an article about the Dyatlov Pass Incident that made me think of Siberia. In the 50s, nine hikers died mysteriously in the northern Ural mountains. They had been camping and something that the Soviets called 'a compelling natural force' was responsible for their deaths. This compelling force of nature drove the campers from their tents in the night. When their bodies were found, investigators discovered that two had fractured skulls and ribs One woman was missing her tongue. Weeeirrd.  Lucky for us, a film is going to be made about the incident.  Read about it here.

Gastronomical Ghouls

You can find creepiness anywhere, food included. This brilliantly entertaining website, called MoFA (Museaum of Food Anomolies) is proof of this. The website's mission states:

• • The MUSEUM OF FOOD ANOMALIES is an online art project of Michael Hanttula that exposes horrific aberrations of nature with photographs depicting common food items that have distorted into something more sinister than words can describe. The excellent submissions come from fine people around-the-world.
    
    

So you can submit your own photo of food witchery. The photo of menacing basil below is just a taste of what the website has on the menu.

"Put me in your sauce and you'll be sorry."

UFO Spotted Over Notre Dame Stadium

Again with the UFOs. This time at Notre Dame Stadium in Indiana. On September 3,after a game between Notre Dame and Florida was delayed and the stadium evacuated due to a violent thunderstorm, some fans witnessed strange objects flying above the stadium.

UFOs over China

Fox News recently reported that planes were diverted from a major Chinese airport after UFOs were reported to be seen hovering above the runway at Jianbei International Airport in Chongquing. 

After the sightings, officials rerouted several flights to other airports.

This comes after a similar UFO sighting last year at Xiaoshan Airport in Hangzhou when Xiaoshan Airport closed following reports of UFOs by airport controllers.

The craft disappeared but footage of a bright object floating across the night sky later became a YouTube sensation.

Lake of Skeletons

My fabulous, furry friend Che sent me this interesting piece:

IN 1942, a frozen lake of over 200 skeletons in Rookund, India was discovered by a forest guard. The first assumption was that the skeletons had belonged to Japanese soldiers. When that was ruled out, the main mystery was how had these people died? It was later discovered that the skeletons belonged to a family as well as travelers that date back to 850 AD.

According to the article: "All the bodies had died in a similar way, from blows to the head. However, the short deep cracks in the skulls appeared to be the result not of weapons, but rather of something rounded. The bodies also only had wounds on their heads, and shoulders as if the blows had all come from directly above. What had killed them all, porter and pilgrim alike?"


It turns out there is a traditional folk song among Himalayan women describes a goddess so angry that outsiders had come into her territory that she killed them by throwing hailstones "hard as iron." After further research, it was concluded that the people did die from a severe hailstorm. 

It's Raining Men

Well only one man. Eyewitnesses in New Jersey say they saw a man fall from the sky last week.

"I [saw] the guy falling, at an angle, like this," an eyewitness told NBC Philadelphia while gesturing. "Straight down. No parachute. No paraglider. . . You could see the arms and legs flailing and his clothes were blue, a dark blue like a navy, black and gray. There's no doubt that it was a person. We're 100 percent sure."

But no one turned up after a police search.

"We're not actively out there searching, but we're waiting for more information," said police Sgt. Robert Gray.

You can read the full article here. Or here.

THE "TREE MAN" MAKES FULL RECOVERY

A 38-year-old man nicknamed "The Tree Man" and "The Human Coral Reef" has recently recovered from a rare skin condition he's suffered from for the last 25 years. The condition, which caused his whole body to be covered in shell-like growths, started when Lin Tianzhuan of Shuimen, China was only 13:

"It started with a few hard bumps so I tried to apply antibiotics and creams but it didn't get better," he explained. "Instead it just got worse. They grew and grew and soon they were all over my arms and legs, my back and even my head. Ii was as if I was turning to stone and it was terrifying," he says.

Fuzhou Dermatosis Prevention Hospital vice president Dr Liu Yinghong said: "His hands, forearms, feet and calf were covered with these dark brown hard shells, looking like dry branches. The seriousness and long-lasting nature of the disease shocked us."

Fortunately, there's a happy ending to this awful story. Now after a year of treatment and surgery, Tianzhuan has made a full recovery with "just a few discoloured skin patches to show for his horrific condition."

To read more about "The Tree Man," go here.