Splendid experiences Marcia. Thank you for publishing it here. Are you feeling disappointment finally? John

Not really disappointment - more like a feeling of relief. Don suggested that it is a case of Unidentified Flying Hypotheses that get us into trouble with these phenomena. I agree. UFH it is for me. I am more than a little distressed when such things happen to me. I KNOW they cannot be so my mind switches into hyper-gear and runs frantically hunting for a reasonable explanation. I am happy to report that in my experience, there are no UFOs of an extraterrestrial nature.

..yet...!

Dear Wolfie I must apologise for the way of my expression. I completely understood what you were meaning. But I fear that trying to express thrifty sentences, I become more than needed simple. It is mine personal choice because I believe that we must expresses essentially rather than using complicated thoughts and sentences. Please think also my real difficulties with English language and the different Greek way of expression. Please forgive my errors. I never learned correct English. I'm truly sorry! I ask your leniency. John

We are 2.5 dimensional existences. We have finite knowledge, logic and estimation. But we have the tendency to learn and explain every thing. Our technology has also its limits. Unfortunately we are completely conditional upon it. My poor opinion is that it is impossible to not exist extraterrestrial life but is equal impossible that we can have any contact with it. We must accept that we cannot answer in all possible questions. Simply we cannot know. The point isn�t on how SIMPLE or INGENUOUS we are but on what we believe that we know. You are correct Marcia and Wolfie. John

*HUGS* John, no need to apologize to me. We are all going to misunderstand each other once in awhile. I believe in things unseen. But that doesn't mean that I'm gullible either. I have experienced unexplainable phenomenon which is why I asked that ParaSpring be created. There are things we simply cannot know. We don't have the brains to fathom certain things. And since we don't know everything about science, we don't know what science can prove. And this is OK by me. I don't HAVE to know why things are the way they are. I'm simply curious.

Wolfie:I don't HAVE to know why things are the way they are. I'm simply curious. This is precisely the way I conclude my thoughts on things unseen and unknown. John's correct about there being things we cannot explain. Things we cannot know, yet reason tells us that it is so even if it is unprovable. Like life elsewhere in the Universe.Of course it is there. Can we know it? I sincerely doubt it.

India UFO attacks 'are coloured lightning balls' A scientist claims the 'UFOs' behind a series of attacks on Indian villagers are just balls of lightning. Professor Ravindra Arora says the coloured balls ranging from tennis to football size are caused by dry weather. Villagers in Uttar Pradesh claim they're being attacked by flying spheres emitting red and blue lights. At least seven people have died of unexplained injuries and others have suffered scratches and burns in the last week. Police say a 9cm-long winged insect may be responsible for the attacks while doctors think the wounds are self-inflicted. Professor Arora, of the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, told Rediff.com: "I have sufficient reason to believe that the burn injuries on the faces of victims were caused by nothing other than these lightning balls. "Dry spells increase the soil resistance while decreasing its conductivity, and in the process attract lightning balls that emit different colour lights - mostly blue, green, yellow or red. "There is constant evidence of these balls over the ages. In all cases, people can see a ball-like object travelling sideways in the air that can produce up to 100 watts of current." One Uttar Pradesh villager, who claims to have been attacked, said: "I can't sleep because of the pain. It was like a big soccer ball with sparkling lights." Professor Arora says the problem should disappear once heavy rains arrive in the region. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_650903.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.phenomena

Meteorite changed Earth's history The impact would have created colossal tidal waves Scientists say they have found evidence that a gigantic meteorite, twice as big as the one which is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs, collided with Earth billions of years ago. Deposits of the rock were found in South Africa and Australia, said a report in the Science journal. The 20-kilometre (12-mile) wide asteroid is believed to have hit the planet with such force that it would have caused tidal waves kilometres high and torn up the bottom of the ocean. Researchers from Stanford University in California and Louisiana State University say the cataclysmic event happened about 3.4 billion years ago, before continents were formed and when only bacteria existed. It is not known exactly where the giant meteorite hit as the scientists have not yet located a crater which would have been left by the impact. Evolution altered The report said the rock probably came from an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Researcher Gary Byerly said the object was likely to have been part of a shower of meteorites, some as wide as 50km (30 miles). "These impacts were very large. They really changed the course of the evolution on Earth," he said. The report does not say what changes the impact might have affected. "There isn't a big extinction event you can identify as cut-and-dried as the extinction of the dinosaurs," said co-author, Donald Lowe. Incredible tsunamis Mr Lowe said it would have taken the rock less than two seconds to pass through the ocean and slam into the sea bed. "That would generate enormous waves kilometres high that would spread out from the impact site, sweep across the ocean and produce just incredible tsunamis - causing a tremendous amount of erosion on the microcontinents and tearing up the bottom of the ocean," he said. Geologists found traces of the meteorite in South Africa's Barberton greenstone belt and Pilbara block in western Australia. The sites contain rocks formed more than three billion years ago and which contain information dating back to the beginning of the solar system. Source: BBC NEWS

I think there is also a theory which maintains that a meteorite crashing into the young Earth caused part of the forming planet to break off and become the Moon.

That is correct. One of the scenarios is described in: 24 Hours of Chaos: The Day The Moon Was Made Large number of asteroids continued to hit the newly formed Earth and Moon during the Late Heavy Bombardment period. Many scientists believe that rocks and dust blasted from Earth by asteroid impacts have landed on the Moon's surface. If such samples are retrieved from the Moon's surface, they can reveal a lot about the early history of Earth and the Solar system (See: Moon Holds Earth's Ancient Secrets)

I would be surprised if my first attempt to add links to a response was successful. It would be a serious violation of Murphy's Law...

Second attempt: 24 Hours of Chaos: The Day The Moon Was Made Moon Holds Earth's Ancient Secrets

Good! That's what happens if you don't listen to Marcia (who suggested using http://www.austen.com/tutorial/) and think that the example under "Adding HTML to Your Response" in http://www.spring.net/help/responding.html is clear enough. The quotation marks are missing...

Those internal little intricacies is what makes HTML programming such a challenge. Frustration is a common side-effect! 'Meteorite' hits girl Siobhan Cowton: "I saw it fall from above roof height" The odds against being hit by a meteorite are billions to one - but a teenager in North Yorkshire may have had one land on her foot. Siobhan Cowton, 14, was getting into the family car outside her Northallerton home at 1030 BST on Thursday when a stone fell on her from the sky. Noticing it was "quite hot", she showed it to her father Niel. The family now plan to have the stone analysed by scientists at Durham University. "I saw it fall from above roof height," Siobhan told BBC News Online. "It looked very unusual, with a bubbled surface and tiny indentations like volcanic lava. 'Shiny' "It was shiny on one side and looked rusty as if it contained iron. "I've seen shooting stars before - but nothing like this. This does not happen very often in Northallerton." Mr Cowton, 45, told BBC News Online he would take the stone to be analysed himself. "It is not going to leave my sight because it is a very rare find," he said. "It is worth a lot to Siobhan. "We will have it mounted in a glass presentation case so she can keep it for the rest of her life. "After all it is not every day you get hit by a meteorite. "The odds of winning the Lottery are better." The stone could have come from Mars, according to expert on Earth impacts Dr Benny Peiser, of Liverpool John Moores University. "It could be billions of years old and come from the earliest formation of the solar system," he told the Daily Mail newspaper. Most meteors are between five and 60 centimetres (1.95 in and 1 ft 11.5 in) long, according to Durham University physical geography lecturer Dr Ben Horton. "Sometimes they have shallow depressions and cavities," he said. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2218755.stm

http://www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov/outreach1/expmetmys/expmetmys.htm a course in "meteorite mysteries".

That is an excellent source of easy information on meteorites! Thank you for posting it. I still want to add a meteorite to my collection...

Woman reunited with ring in apple after 27 years A woman has been reunited with a gold ring found inside an apple, 27 years after she says she lost it. Twelve-year-old Jamie-Louisa Arnold discovered the ring when she bit into an apple. Rosalind Pike, now 37, says she was given the �5 ring by her parents while on holiday. She lost it at a pool in Colchester, Essex, when she went swimming with her primary school in 1975. A gardening expert says it could have been dropped in a tree, by a bird or orchard worker, and the fruit formed around it. Rosalind told The Sun, which reported on the find earlier this week: "I couldn't believe it when I saw the picture of the ring - I just knew it was the same one I lost all those years ago. To see it inside an apple was incredibly spooky. I never thought I'd see it again." She added: "I knew it was mine because it had the same markings inside the band. It's an unusual design. My mum and dad bought me that ring when I was very young and I treasured it. I just can't believe I have found it after all these years. "I left the ring on my towel at the side of the pool but when I came out it had gone. I just assumed it had been lost. I just wish the ring could talk and tell me exactly what has happened over the years." Jamie-Louisa, from Cowlinge, Suffolk, bit on the ring while eating an apple at a holiday park near Colchester. She said: "I feel very happy that Rosalind saw the story and has claimed it." The Sun's gardening expert Peter Seabrook said the ring could have been dropped in a tree. Orchard workers often thin apple crops by hand, flicking off under-sized fruits with their fingers so that the others can grow bigger. Mr Seabrook said: "The apple is only the size of a thumbnail at this time. A ring could fall off on to the fruitlet. The odds are long - but it is possible the fruit could seal around the ring." http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_655818.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.phenomena

Lost city in Georgia resurfaces again A city in Georgia which was flooded 50 years ago to make way for a lake has begun emerging again. Petersburg was once the state's second largest city and has resurfaced amid the sinking waters of Thurmond Lake. Army Corps of Engineers flooded 72,000 acres to build the Lake in the early 1950s. Most of the city's ruins still lie beneath the lake's waters, which have sunk more than 14 feet , exposing old roadbeds, fence lines and brick foundations. There's also historical litter, such as rusty spikes and broken glass. "We get a lot of questions, and we have a few people who come all the way out here just to see it," said Jerry Cook, assistant manager at Bobby Brown State Park, which straddles Thurmond Lake's shoreline. Petersburg was founded as a tobacco town in the late 1700s and peaked in 1809, when 45,000 people lived in the Broad River Valley. But then the economy dried up and the settlement dwindled as quickly as it had grown. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_665946.html?menu=

Is life the rule or the exception? The answer may be in the interstellar clouds Some scientists have theorised that life on Earth began when amino acids, the building blocks of life, were delivered from space by comets and asteroids. The European Space Agency is planning two missions to help gather more evidence. Rosetta, due for launch in 2003, will study the composition of gas and dust released from a comet to sense what kinds of organic molecules they contain, while Herschel, due for launch in 2007 will focus on the chemistry of interstellar space, searching for traces of the material in distant clouds of dust. [ Visit News Source ] Complete story in ESA portal

Rosetta seems to be the catchword for any new technology to seek out information. Of course, anyone watching the big buildup for little results of the pyramid television program this week will know that without the Rosetta stone we could not read heiroglyphics - or perhaps we could. Did anyone find that program interesting. I got rather tired of seeing that Egyptian archaeologist (known in certain circles as a "glory hound") use most of the time talking about how great his ancestors were. I wonder if DNA proves that. Just curious.

Mystery Object Orbits Earth NASA Science News for September 20, 2002 A puzzling object that recently entered Earth orbit appears set to leave again soon. What is it? Researchers believe it's an Apollo rocket on a fantastic journey through the solar system. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/20sep_mysteryobject.htm?list89800

Mirror matter mystery By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor Two Australian scientists believe they have found evidence of a parallel universe of strange matter within our own Solar System. Dr Robert Foot and Dr Saibal Mitra, of the University of Melbourne, report that close-up observations of the asteroid Eros by the Near-Shoemaker probe indicate it has been splattered by so-called "mirror matter". Mirror matter is not anti-matter, it is altogether weirder. It is somehow a "reflection" of normal matter, a sort of parallel series of particles required to restore the balance of the Universe. Sounds far-fetched - some believe so. However, experiments are underway to confirm or deny the existence of this strange, potentially significant but as yet undetected component of the cosmos. Source and complete document: BBC NEWS, Science/Nature

Mirrors? Imagine the possibilities! Thank you for that,John. I have been a little out of the loop lately, but that is about to change. At least, in theory. I will get some time each day on the modem until I leave here, then I will have full time. Thank you all for hanging in there with me. This has been VERY difficult.

"Through the Looking Glass", indeed.

100,000 tourists flock to see mysterious Thai fireballs More than 100,000 tourists flocked to a remote part of Thailand to see a mysterious phenomenon in which coloured fireballs shoot into the sky. more and pictures... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_694513.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.phenomena

I will be in this area in two weeks. I'll report what I might discover other than the fact that it is a hoax: It's a hoax! The names of the teenagers in this story have been changed to protect their identities - Editor. Four Fairfield teenagers claim they created the mysterious crop circles that popped up in a Rockville Road wheat field in June, drawing thousands of curious onlookers and nationwide media attention. http://www.thereporter.com/

Did I post this before? Pictures are on the link. Archaeologists examine 'pre-historic stone faces' Archaeologists say five stones with faces carved into them - which have been ignored for decades after being found in Massachusetts - could be prehistoric relics. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_784886.html?menu=

About those crop circles... they suddenly stopped appearing. It seems the police caught the kids making them.

Thus, the new agers and their $$ for local establishments disappeared, too.

Hi Marci! Still around but have been 'slightly preoccupied'. I did get to pay a brief visit to Salem, MA last week while on a business trip - cool place to visit - interesting ambience. 73 de AA9IL Mike

Hi Mike! Did you sample the witches? I heard that was a requisit activity in Salem. MA. It is a very interesting town! Different...! Drop in anytime. We're happy to hear anything from you whenever you can manage it. Enjoy the lack of snow while you can. I am enjoying the 100 which feels like 116 temperatures in California. But, no crop circles!

Another Atlantis? Divers find ruins of mythical city off India Explorers believe they have discovered remains of a mythical city off the coast of India. According to legend it was swallowed up by the sea about 2,000 years ago. photos and more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_563330.html

This article goes on to mention Graham Hancock. I have two of his books. Take them with the proverbial grain of salt.

Lake disappears suddenly in Chile Scientists in Chile are investigating the sudden disappearance of a glacial lake in the south of the country. When park rangers patrolled the area in the Magallanes region in March, the two-hectare (five-acre) lake was its normal size, officials say. But last month they found a huge dry crater and several stranded chunks of ice that used to float on the water. One theory is that an earthquake opened up a fissure in the ground, allowing the lake's water to drain through. "In March we patrolled the area and everything was normal," Juan Jose Romero from Chile's National Forestry Corporation, Conaf, said. "We went again in May and to our surprise we found that the lake had completely disappeared. All that was left were chunks of ice and an enormous fissure." Geologists and other experts are being sent to the area, which is some 2,000km (1,250 miles) south of the capital, Santiago, to investigate. The region is shaken by frequent earth tremors and one idea is that a strong quake which hit the neighbouring region of Aysen in April opened up the fissure in the bottom of the lake. A glacier specialist, Andres Rivera, told Chilean newspaper La Tercera that the lake's disappearance seemed to be part of the continual reforming of the landscape. The Magallanes area "has seen interesting changes in the last few decades," he said, noting that the lake itself had not been there 30 years ago. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6225676.stm

This lake appears to be the sort of Gacial artifact that appear seeminly suddenly and disappear the same way. It will be interesting to watch this.