Big Changes to DevilsHopyard.com !!!
We are currently in the midst of a huge website re-design with new features and exciting, multi-media content. The new touches will begin appearing in about two weeks. Stay tuned for the relaunched DH.com
A WebNation Stunned: Casey Anthony Acquitted; to be released July 17
Update: Juror# 2 Speaks Out: First Vote 10-2 Against Captial Murder, Second vote 6-6 for Manslaughter. Hard liners for acquittal won out. St. Petersburg Times
Update: The Honorable Judge Belvin Perry may have tipped his hand if pundits were wondering his opinion on Casey Anthony's stunning acquittal of all murder charges. Today, he gave her the maximum penalty under the law for lying to police: four , one year sentences to be served consecutively. With time served and gain time, she will be released on July 17. Her accumltaed time served currently stands at 1043 days, one more than Caylee was alive.
We have not updatedDevilsHopyard.com as much lately as the Casey Anthony trial grabbed our collective attention greater than any scripted or unscripted drama. Today, in a verdict as stunning as that rendered in favor of one Orenthal James Simpson more than a decade ago, Casey Anthony was acquitted of first degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter, and manslaughter. She was convicted on four misdemeanor counts of lying to police. The jury took just a hair short of eleven hours to deliberate then jail broke out of Orange County back home. We are a bit confused as to the rationale behind the decision although an alternate juror stated on HLN that he believed the body of three year old Caylee was never in Casey's trunk, George Anthony was involved in a cover-up, the duct tape on the skull was transferred from the trash bag (?????) and the scientific evidence presented by the prosecution was not convincing. To say that these points are convincing is to be generous, despite what lawyers like Richard Hornsby claim. In the coming months, we will go back over our notes and compile a case page for the Anthony trial and analyze where this jury's opinion originated from.
Interesting Casey Anthony Reading Material:
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Alternate Juror Speaks Out, Believes no Body in Trunk, Duct Tape Accidently Attached to Skull
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Did the CSI effect sway the jurors?
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Juror#3 Jennifer Ford tells ABCNews that she circumstances of Caylee's death not enough to warrant guility verdict, toggled on manslaughter/NGt
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Juror#6 Demands Compensation for Media Access
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Baez on Nightline: Casey Anthony was a 'Good Mother,' passes off the 31 days of partying as 'grieving'
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Bizarre: LIghtning Strikes Tree At Caylee Anthony Crime Scene
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Former Casey Anthony fiance Jesse Grund tells Dr. Drew that Casey Defense team discussed pinning murder of Caylee by drowing on him way back in September 2008. Cindy Anthony cheerlead that conversation.
Vivid Entertainment Pulls Offer to Casey Anthony
As Defense Case Scuttles, George and Cindy Anthony Believe Casey is not Innocent
DevilsHopyard continues to monitor the Casey Anthony trial and will have our outline of the evidence from the trial shortly. Late last night, George and Cindy Anthony revealed through their attorney, Mark Lippman, that they support their daughter but no longer believe she is innocent.
Told to CNN, "They love her, they support her and they do not want her to get the death penalty and they will do all they can to avoid her getting the death penalty in this case," Lippman said. When asked about her guilt, Lippman replied that George and Cindy Anthony do not believe their daughter Casey is innocent. WESH
As far as the case againt Casey, the defends has struggled to combat the death band evidence which puts Caylee's body in the trunk of Casey's Pontiac Sunfire, the high levels of chloroform in samples by Oak Ridge forensic anthropologist Arpad Vass, and the cause of death outlined by Dr. G. The defense has been admonished twice during their portion of the case for Discovery violations and had a portion of testimony from a witness about DNA contained in decomposition fluid excluded. More of the Anthony case will appear on our True Crime page.
Chandra Discovers that Black Black Holes were Plentiful in the Early Universe; Supports Galactic Seeding Hypothesis
Coming Soon
DevilsHopyard Surveys Tornado Damage in Sturbridge, Southbridge, and Brimfield
Central Massachusetts continues to untangle from the onslaught of super storms which devastated areas of W.Springfield, Monson, Brimfield, and Sturbridge. Two EF3 tornados were confirmed down in Brimfield and Sturbridge. One of the twisters swept out a path only two streets from my residence. The past two days I visited Willard Rd in Sturbridge, MA as well as the Quinebaug Cove Campground in Brimfield to survey the damage. Having never seen the aftermath of a tornado before, I did not know exactly how powerful and destructive such a storm could be. But after two humbling visits in which I witnessed cars crushed under the weight of fallen trees, trunks twisted, turned, and broken like uncooked linguini, and the utter annhilation of living quarters, my respect for the power of nature has been humbled to silence. Take a look at the destruction for each location. Additional footage is available at DH's YouTube channel.
Quinebaug Cove Campground, Brimfield
Willard Rd, Sturbridge
True Crime: Days 9-12: Prosecution Lays Down Forensic Gauntlet Against Anthony
Evidence collected from the trunk of Casey Anthony's Pontiac Sunfire has taken center stage at the Casey Anthony trial as the prosecution introduced two crucial pieces of damning evidence: a hair collected from the trunk of the Sunfire which contained the so-called death band, a discoloration at the root which occurs at death, and a chemical anaylsis of the foul smell inside the trunk demonstrating that it was caused by human decomposition. True Crime for more details on the testimony of Investigator Geraldo Bloise, FBI forensic scientist Karen Lowe, and forensic anthropologist Dr. Arpad Voss, please click over to our true crime page here.
True Crime: Days 7 & 8: Casey Anthony's Shattered Glass of Lies as Lead Detective Take the Stand; Websleuth Posts Come Under Attack on Cross
Yuri Melich, lead Casey investigator, took the stand this afternoon and recounted his meeting with Casey Anthony on the morning of July 16, 2008 following the 9-1-1 call from Casey's mother late the night prior. Melich arrived at the Anthony home on Hope Springs Road at 4am on a possible kidnapping call. Deputies had already been at the Anthony home and took statements, but the arrival of Melich signified the start of the formal investigation. Go to True Crime for more details on Melich's testimony.
True Crime: Unabomber DNA Requested by FBI in connection with the 1980 Tylenol Murders
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In recent years, the FBI has shown renewed interest in many of the more infamous cold cases of the past forty years. Perhaps out of fear that their UNSUB may be at an age of declining health or an attempt to breath new life into these investigations with younger agents, the cases of Dan Cooper, Zodiac, April Tinsley, and now the Tylenol Murders have been active in the past few years. The later case sparked interest this week after the FBI requested DNA from imprisoned serial bomber Ted Kaczynski for examination against material collected in the Chicago cyanide poisonings ( and deaths ) of seven people. Follow the leap to read why Kaczynski is fighting the request. Read more. |
DevilsHopyard Update: TEPCO admits to nearly achieving the China Syndrome
In the 1979 James Bridges' thriller The China Syndrome,
a local news team films an event at a California nuclear plant in which
engineers very nearly uncover the 'core', the mass of super-reactive nuclear fuel used to generate steam and, in term, electricity. In one of the film's most terrifying scenes, two nuclear
physicists describe the nightmare scenario known in which the temperature of superheated nuke fuel cannot be controlled and melts through the bottom of the plant,
generating an explosive cloud of
radioactivity capable of killing millions based solely on the direction of wind
speed. This week, authorities at the Daiichi NF discovered that they may have partially realized this nightmare: a hole several centimeters in
diameter was found in the containment of reactor 1. This aperture could only be caused by the melting of nuclear fuel rods in the reactor core. Japanese officials believe that the
drowning of the core in water is working to lower the core temperature, but American nuclear officials are fearful of the contaminated water lost through the hole in containment.
For more information and a timeline of events, please visit
our investigation of the accident.
DevilsHopyard Update: Police investigate NYPD Officers in connection with LI slayings
According to the NY Post, Suffolk County police have focused their investigation into the murders of at least four but as many as eight women on two NYPD officers who have had a violent history with prostitutes. One of the two cops had been disciplined in the past by the department when it was learned they had solicited women for sex on a regular basis in the early 1990s: this individual has since resigned. The other cop still works for the NYPD but was stripped of his gun and badge years ago because he allegedly assaulted a prostitute and got arrested during a sting operation. No criminal charges were filed in that particular case. Since last month, Suffolk County police have begun looking at police officers after evidence pointed toward an individual familiar with investigation techniques. For more information, please visit our Craigslist ripper investigation page.
DevilsHopyard Feature: The Dark Matter Project
DevilsHopard is excited to announce the start of our exploration into the mystery of Dark Matter, the mysterious substance which binds the Universe together from individual galaxies to cosmic filaments composed of millions of individual galaxies. Dark Matter appears to make up more than twenty per cent of the Universe's mass yet it interacts only through its own gravity and no other process. We can see neither its interaction with light or any other particle. As a result, we can only infer what exactly is the source of this mysterious matter. Particle physicists are searching the soup of particles for a supersymmetric neutrino which could fill the role quite nice, though the neutralino would shake the foundation of the Standard model. Other WIMP (weakly interacting massive particles) candidates have been proposed, though like the neutralino, none have been found in the lab. Some theoretical physicists have chosen alternate routes: the modification or correction of Newton and Einstein. MOND (MOdified Newtonian Dynamics) and Conformal Gravity have fit many of the features of the dark matter observations, though only the latter has broken through and connected gravitational and particle theory (Unification!).
Where does truth lie? DH will explore this incredible mystery of the Universe by first examining the evidence that a matter is indeed missing from the visible Universe.
The Death of Osama Bin Laden
update: CBS News reports that NAVY SEAL Team Six recorded the entired 40 minute raid with their helmet cams.
Devil's Hopyard has moved the Osama bin Laden killing to its own investigative page. It can be accessed here. Further updates will be posted there, but breaking news will continue to command the front page.
First Detection of Higgs Boson?? Rumors Fly as Alleged Internal ATLAS Memo Spreads Across Net
The rumor began in the comments section of a blog written by Colombia mathematics professor Peter Woit. The poster, who called himself Higgs?, referenced an abstract allegedly written by physicists at CERN: the entire paper required a CERN login. The abstract purported that a 115 GeV/c2 photon photon, Higgs signature signal had been detected by the ATLAS team. How reliable is this anonymous post? Read More
Craigslist Ripper Bombshell: Killer calls Victim's Family Seven Times from Victim's Cellphone
It has been confirmed by the family of Melissa Barthelemy, one of the first four victim's found on Gilgo Beach along Ocean Parkway, that the killer used the victim's cell phone to make seven calls to the family.
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July 2009 Days after Melissa goes missing, a man using her cell phone talks to Barthelemy's then 15 year old sister and refers to Melissa as a 'whore.'
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August 26, 2009 Approximately a month after Melissa went missing, a man calls using Melissa's cell phone and asks Barthelemy's sister,"Do you think you'll ever see her again? You won't. I killed her," he added and hung up. The phone call ended after less than a minute.
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In the final call, the man described in graphic detail to the victim's sister what he had done sexually to Barthelemy, Cohen said.
Police traced the phone calls to downtown Manhatten. In fact, the two last calls made from around Madison Square Garden and Times Square. The caller hung up too quickly for authorities to pinpoint the exact locations of the calls, police said. CNN
Devil's Hopyard continues to investigate the Craiglist Ripper case and has created its own investigation blog as we actively collect information. The case file can be found here.
Fermilab's 3-Sigma Event is not Higgs, but what is it?
As the Large Hadron Collider continues to ramp up toward full power and probe the outer limits of the Standard Model, Fermilab's Tevatron has been quietly making significant progress in beating its European counterparts to many of particle physics most important open questions. Since 1983, Tevatron has colleided protons with anti-protons to produce the exotic constitutents of the particle zoo. But with its cyclotron reved up to 1.9 TeV, only less than 25% lower than CERN's rock-star supercollider, Fermilab announced a stunning discovery: the ghostly signature of a particle in the 120-200 GeV/c2 mass range at a place where the Standard Model predicts no such particle exists. See the ghostly signature shown above. . . Read more
Meltdown! Earthquake Damages Emergency Cooling Systems at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Facility as Authorities Scramble to Cool Burning Nuclear Material (with Updates)
Note: Updates on the Daiichi Nuclear Crisis have been moved to its own page located here.
Update 40: Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has raised the nuclear threat level from level 5 (Three Mile Island) to level 7 (Chernobyl) which equates to a "major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects requiring implementation of planned and extended countermeasures."
DH Investigates the Long Island Craigslist Killer
Suffolk County Police announced the discovery of three more bodies found near Gilgo Beach on Long Island. Since the beginning of 2010, the remains of eight women in this area. The first four victims were all prostitutes who advertised on Craigslist. Police have not released where the three latest victims were found, however, the year long search was initiated after the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert, 24, of Jersey City, New Jersey, was last seen alive on May 1. Ms. Gilbert has not been found, but as the Long Island snows have melted, the work of a methodical serial killer became exposed. More information on the initial four victims as well as the latest discovery is available on DH's True Crime Page.
Messenger Sends Back First Photos of Mercury
The first photos of Mercury were beamed back from Messenger, a robotic space probe launched from earth in 2004. Although this is Messenger's fourth approach to the planet closest to the Sun, this is the first time the probe has achieved orbit. Previously, Messenger discovered water in Mercury's exosphere and hints of a liquid core. Messenger's stunnig photos can be seen here.
Nature's Fury as an 8.9 Earthquake Generates Destructive Tsunami with Updates
A cataclysmic drop in the ocean floor from the quake releases an energy equivalent to the weight of the water over the affected region times the height at which the sea floor fell. That change in potential energy was directly converted into the kinetic energy of the wave disturbance. From CNN:
The physics of the tsunami:
The turbulence of the quake generate eddy currents, or vortices, in the ocean:
Read this Book: The Vegetarian Myth by ierre Keith
Sun Unleashes Massive Solar Storm with Updates
Solar sunspot 1158 has erupted into a massive solar flare, hurling an enormous CME (coronal mass ejection) toward earth, the largest in four years. The event registered an X2 on the corona Richter scale: X class flares are the largest and most dangerous, capable of inducing blackouts on earth and/or massive storms in the magnetosphere. X class peak intensities surpass 10-4 W/m2. The CME was detected by NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft and can be seen in this movie below. Intensive aurora activity is expected within 36-48 hours. Last August, the NOAA closely monitored a K4 geomagnetic storm which excited skywatchers in Northern Canada and Europe.
Updates at Super Science.
Twenty Five Years
Debunk-Three Reasons Why HAARP is NOT in the Business of Killing Birds
Not since the sudden widespread disappearence of millions of honey bee colonies has a mass animal death puzzled caught the attention of the mainstream media and reader. But something very bizarre occurred in the minutes before the New Year just outside the small Arkansas town of Beebee when thousands redwinged blackbirds plummeted to the earth, death on impact. Reports said nearly 3,000 red-winged blackbirds, common grackles, and European Starlings were dropping dead from the sky within a one-mile radius near Beebe on December 31. Continue
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Pope Benedict Spars with Astrophysicists Over Origin of Universe; Confirms Hawking's Fear
In his address before the Conference on July 6, 1985, Pope John Paul II directly acknowledged the role of science in making mankind “more aware of our true physical position within the Universe, within physical reality - in space and in time.” In fact, in his strongest statement of the address, the Pope elucidated a firm compact between science and religion; one in which mankind’s search for understanding of the physical reality and the structure of the Universe inevitably leads towards a greater appreciation of the “immensity and mystery of God’ and ‘grasp our origin and destiny.’
However,the game may have changed today when Pope Benedict offered a much stronger position from the Church regarding the search for what came before the Big Bang. On the day Christians mark the Epiphany, the day the Bible says the three kings reached the site where Jesus was born, Benedict proclaimed "the universe is not the result of chance, as some would want to make us believe." In stronger language, the Pope derided some scientific theories as "mind limiting" since "they only arrive at a certain point ... and do not manage to explain the ultimate sense of reality ..."
Although Benedict's language mirrors that of John Paul II in content, the tone was much harsher. Perhaps it is no coincidence that 2010 was an important year in the study of Big Bang physics:
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The Large Hadron Collider has begun initial experiments at 50% of its maximum energy, including the first lead-ion collisions designed to produce a state of matter which could only have existed in the first few seconds after the Big Bang. Data released in December indicates that matter and energy poured out into the Universe like a superhot, superdense liquid (DH article coming soon)
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In a book published in 2010, Stephen Hawking professed that "the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist."
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Roger Penrose and V. G. Gurzadyan recently published a paper claiming that our Universe has passed through multiple Big Bang aeons and evidence of past BB events is present in the WMAP sky survey (DH article on this coming soon)
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Alexander Kashlinsky, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, has led a study of dark flow, a mysterious graviational attractor toward which hundreds of galaxy clusters are streaming in the same direction at more than 2.2 million miles (3.6 million kilometers) an hour. Kashlinsky believes this attractor may lay outside our Universe.
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Indiana University physicist Nikodem Poplawski has found stable, viable theorectical wormhole solutions which could indicated that black holes may be the ignition switch for Big Bang events.
Physicists and astronomers have begun to probe deeper back in time and the last rampart of religion has begun to be probed. If science can describe conditions before the beginning, then God will be relegated to the role as a passive Creator. One whose work can be studied and admired for all its elegance and possibility. Pope John Paul II believed that man's ability to comprehend God's work was a divine gift.
Army and Navy Drop the Curtain on Two Powerful New Weapons
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Microbiologists Offer Sharp Rebuke of Wolfe-Simon Claim
Within days of the 'historic' NASA press conference which self proclaimed to change the view in which life can exist, critics of the Wolf-Simon et al experiment have already begun discrediting the methodology of an experiment in question. Read More in Super Science.
Black Government News
WikiLeaks Poison Pill is Impossible to Stop, experts warn
WikiLeaks Threatens to Drop A-Bomb if Assange Detained or Killed
Bill Clinton Once Lost the Biscuit
X-37 Spy Space Plane Returns from Mission
Visit Black Government
BREAKING: NASA Changes the Game: Life Can Thrive in......Arsenic
It is most famous as a caustic subtance, often a poison, arsenic can also provide vital nutrients for life to flourish, accoriding to NASA. The Exobiology team announced this afternoon that the had observed a bacterium t thriving in an environment of arsenic when the nutrient phosphorus was withheld from the sample. Arsenic is the element one row below phosphorus on the periodic table. The announcement turned the belief in life as we know it into the belief in life as we once knew it. Score one for Ian Malcolm See more at DH's Science Page.
Aruban Prosecuter says Bone Fragments Do Not Match Natalee Holloway
Prosecutor Peter Blanken revealed today that the jawbone and tooth recovered from a beach near the Phoenix hotel do not belong to missing Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway. The tooth was compared to dental records provided by the Holloway family. Blanken did add that the bones were from a human source. CNN
Secret Sevice Agents Return to that Day in Dealey Plaza
CNN has a wonderful interview with several of the Secret Service Agents who rode John F. Kennedy's motorcade on that fateful afternoon, forty-seven years ago today. Former SSA Gerald Blaine has just released a book, The Kennedy Detail, in which he recounts for the first time what he saw and heard as former Marine Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots from a primitive bolt action rifle from the corner window of the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.
- Blaine recounts how he almost shot newly inaugurated President Lyndon B. Johnson the night after the assassination. Tired, shaken, and holding submachine gun with finger on the trigger, Blaine nearly figured on the figure approaching in the dark. A figure turned out to be the President, out alone taking a quick breath of air. Blaine describes Johnson as turning white and quietly retreating back into the house.
- Clint Hill, the first SSA to reach the limosine containing President Kennedy and his wife, wrote the forward to Blaine's book. He tells CNN that he has been haunted by November 22 his entire life, resigning his post and retreating into a life of alcoholism and isolation. Hill believes if he reacted just a second or two earlier, he would have intercepted one of the bullets fired by Oswald and have died. With sorrow, he says, "It would have been a happier ending for the country and for everybody." Clint Hill shrugs off suggestions that he was a hero that day; he says that heroes are people who are able to do extraordinary things, but, on 11/22/63, Hill says he was unable to do that.
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After the first shot hit the president, SSA Clint Hill says, "I saw him grab at his throat and lean to his left. So I jumped and ran. . . Just before I got to the car, the third shot hit him in the head." Hill says."It was too late."
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As she cradled her husband's head in her lap, Mrs. Kennedy was overheard by Hill as saying: "Oh, Jack, what have they done to you?"
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Both ex-agents do not accept conspiracy claims which have thrived in the years since the assassination: "There's no question in my mind he was the assassin," Hill says. "I was there. I know what happened."
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Both Hill and Blaine also dismiss criticisms of lax security around the vehicle. Hill had ridden on the back of the limosine during an earlier stretch of the motorcade, but could not remain there as the car turned toward Dealey Plaza because, as Hil explains: "We were going into a freeway, and that's where you take the speeds up to 60 and 70 miles an hour. So we would not have had any agents there anyway."
Natalee Holloway Update: Bones found on beach are from young caucasian female
Latest True Crime & Super Science News
Super Science News
Chandra May Have Found Youngest Black Hole Ever
LHC Fires Up Heavy Ion Collisions
Aussie Scientists Develop Hollow Laser Tractor Beam
The Sun Remains Very Active
True Crime News
Update on Hollway Investigation: Aruban Authorities Find Jawbone, Expect Test Results in a Week
Pentagon Believes the Object to be a Commercial Airliner, Closes Case
Read Original Story at Ufology
Update #6: Has a blogger substantiated the government position that the mysterious contrail over Southern CA Monday night was caused a commercial airliner? FOXNews reports that blogger Liem Bahneman on Wednesday pinpointed America West Flight 808 as the likely cause -- backing up an explanation offered by a senior military official to Fox News Channel that the contrail caught on video by a news helicopter “was more likely caused by an airplane than anything else." Bahneman compared inbound flight schedules into LAX on Monday evening to those the rest of the week in search of a specific flight which could have produced the contrail. On Tuesday evening, he photographed a contrail produced by flight AWE808 which had a similar upward pattern as a missile/rocket.
The image on the left is AWE808 on Tuesday evening; the image on the right is the mysterious contrail seen Monday evening. "As I was researching tonight (24 hours later), I realized that today's (Tuesday's) AWE808 current position (at around 4:50 p.m.) was almost the same as it was the day of the incident. I quickly pulled up a Newport Beach webcam and found that (apparently) AWE808 was making an identical contrail, 24 hours later!"
Bahneman cited another blog, ContrailScience.com, which lists a wealth of other details about jet airplane contrails. The blogger behind that site agreed with Bahneman, telling FoxNews.com that "the plane is flying directly TOWARD you, so it starts below the horizon. The contrail at the horizon is far away, maybe 50-100 miles behind the plane, and has been spread out by the wind, creating the illusion that it's closer." FOX
Update #5: Dr. Theodore Postol, a professor of Science, Technology, and National Security at MIT, examined the video for CNN and ruled out a commercial aircraft as a source. He supports the conclusion that the object is a rocket or missile because of an apparent stage seperation of the visible as an intense glow at the peak of the plume at one point in the video. In addition, Dr. Postol points to a diffuse contrail near the object indicative of a rocket or missile at high altitude. See images below:
Postol questioned the government's official position because it has not identified the commercial airline flight which produced this contrail despite the Pentagon's disclosure that all rocket carrying DOD vehicles have been accounted for in the vicinity of this event. CNN Video
Update #4: The Pentagon has ruled that the object was likely a commercial airline and has closed the case.
"With all the information that we have gathered over the last day and a half about this condensation trail ... we have no evidence to suggest that this was anything other than a contrail caused by an aircraft," said Col. David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman.
Update #3: FAA did not track any fast moving objects in the area that evening:
"The FAA ran radar replays of a large area west of Los Angeles based on media reports of the possible missile launch at approximately 5 p.m. (PT) on Monday. The radar replays did not reveal any fast moving, unidentified targets in that area," said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. "The FAA did not receive reports ... of unusual sightings from pilots who were flying in the area on Monday afternoon."
Update #2:NORAD has quickly shot down (no pun intended) the possibility of a foreign launch. The question at large is, how could they know.
NORAD had this to say on the internet regarding the missile incident: “We can confirm that there is no threat to our nation, and from all indications this was not a launch by a foreign military. We will provide more information as it becomes available.”
Update #1: I'm not sure about this explanation. The contrail looks awfully thick to be from an airplane. The FAA has not come out and declared the object to be an airplane.
John Pike, a defense expert who is director of GlobalSecurity.org, said he believes he has solved the mystery. "It's clearly an airplane contrail," Pike said Tuesday afternoon. "It's an optical illusion that looks like it's going up, whereas in reality it's going towards the camera. The tip of the contrail is moving far too slowly to be a rocket. When it's illuminated by the sunset, you can see hundreds of miles of it ... all the way to the horizon. "Why the government is so badly organized that they can't get somebody out there to explain it and make this story go away ... I think that's the real story," Pike added. "I mean, it's insane that with all the money we are spending, all these technically competent people, that they can't get somebody out there to explain what is incredibly obvious." CNN
The Federal Aviation Administration, the Coast Guard, Navy, Air Force, and California Reps. Dana Rohrabacher and Jane Harman -- whose coastal districts are closest to the offshore contrails -- were at a loss to explain the images. "The FAA ran radar replays of a large area west of Los Angeles based on media reports of the possible missile launch at approximately 5 p.m. (PT) on Monday. The radar replays did not reveal any fast moving, unidentified targets in that area," said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. "The FAA did not receive reports ... of unusual sightings from pilots who were flying in the area on Monday afternoon. "The FAA did not approve any commercial space launches around the area Monday," he added.
The Pentagon reiterated that it has no information or advanced knowledge of the object.
New Site Visits in History & Legends Section
DH has been quite busy this month updating our Myths, Legends, and Bizarre Histories section with a number of site visits. We have investigated the myths and historical record behind the following sites:
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The Vampire legends of Rhode Island and Connecticut (four site visits)
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Devil's Hopyard State Park
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Ballou Cemetery in Cumberland, Rhode Island
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Nine Men's Misery
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The Monastery
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Little People's Village
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Union Cemetery, Easton, CT
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West Greenwich Baptist Church & the Legend of Nellie Vaughn
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The Exeter School (the Ladd School) and its cemetery
Many of these site visits are already viewable on our YouTube page, but we will be adding them to the website in the next week.
Police Request Interview with Jon Benet's Brother
Signs of life in the Jon Benet Ramsey murder investigation. This week, Police Chief Mark Beckner has asked Jon Benet's brother Burke, now 23, to interview again with police in what is apparently an extensive round of interviews. Read more in our True Crime section.
Halloween in New England Kicks Off
It is officially the season. Shimmering spectres, wasting, flesh eating ghouls, and wistful witches tickling the imaginations of children and the memories of adults. Halloween in New England is like no other time in no other place. As the October days approach All Hallow's Eve, DH will post pictures of the season from all over the states of Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. Please check out our slide show as it will be updated every day.
Devil's Hopyard Youtube Channel Has Launched
All of our legend tripping videos can be viewed on our very own YouTube Channel. Please subscribe and leave comments.
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