Sightings are up. The legends are building. In the foothills of Siberia, the time has finally come for scientists from around the globe to unite in a common cause.

Finding the Yeti.

Researchers from Russia, the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Estonia, Mongolia and China will arrive later this week at a conference designed to find evidence of the beast.

Alleged sightings of Yetis in Kemerovo and the neighboring Altai region, about 1,988 miles (3,200 kilometers) east of Moscow, are up three times compared to 20 years ago, with scientists estimating that there is a current population of at least several dozen in the area.

Other evidence of the existence of the creatures — such as basic twig huts, twisted branches and footprints of up to 35 centimeters (14 inches) — also has been found in the area.

Wood Goblins are next.

[Fox News]

If you think American schools have problems, take a look at Botswana:

Schools in Botswana are infested with devil worshippers … Operating more like drug-dealers, they get instructions from up the rungs of the ladder of Satanism. And travelling to meet their leaders is not an issue as they can simply summon a slice of bread, a needle, a blanket or mealie meal bag and instruct it to take them to the depths of the ocean where they hold meetings with their leaders and receive instructions. The girls even have the power to resurrect dead bodies after they exhume them and then take them along to the meetings in the ocean. … The devil worshippers said they often find willing recruits among youngsters because they are fond of alcohol and always engaged in brawls after bingeing. At school, devil worshippers are encouraged and even participate in fights in which blood ends up being shed. Then, when nobody sees them, they lap up the blood of the protagonists.

An underwater conspiracy of portkey-wielding schoolgirls who are obsessed with the dark arts are terrorizing the impoverished African nation. Neither The Boy Who Lived nor You Know Who could be reached for comment.

[The Monitor]

When Jack Bauer says it, it must be true.

Actor Kiefer Sutherland was asked if he believed in aliens and here’s what he said.

“When I look up at the sky on a clear night and see the wash of stars and planets, and everything that is outside our universe, I have to believe there is life everywhere.

“It would be very arrogant to believe this is the only planet that could sustain some kind of life.”

Although we want to learn how he looks up into the sky and sees beyond our universe, we are totally on Team Kiefer.

[Contact Music]

Songbirds and Snakes thought they were really awesome with their superfast muscles. But we mammals, we are not to be left out, no. Bats have now been proven to use the special class of muscle to help create their echolocation calls.

The discovery of superfast muscles in mammals may also help scientists disentangle the muscles’ evolution overall, Elemans said.

For instance, researchers will now be able to compare the bat genome with other genomes of superfast-muscled animals—such as songbirds and snakes—to figure out when and how the muscles evolved.

What’s more, Elemans suggests that the tracking boost afforded by terminal buzz helped bats flourish when they first evolved 50 million years ago.

“You need these buzzes to catch stuff,” Elemans said. In addition to flight and “regular” echolocation, terminal buzz is “the third reason why they’ve been successful evolutionarily.”

[National Geographic]

Who doesn’t love Remember The Titans. A story of redemption, hope, togetherness and the cheerleader from Heroes when she was like, 9.

You know who really loves Remember The Titans? High School football coach Jim Marsh. On the way back from a loss, he decided to inspire his team in the style of that film by pulling all of his kids off the bus at a cemetery, telling them to lie down and giving a motivational speech.

The same way Coach Boone brought the kids to Gettysburgh and encouraged his team to learn a “lesson from the dead“? Right?

The only difference is that Coach Boone’s team took that energy, conquered racism and won the championship and Coach Marsh just got suspended for two weeks thanks to some parental complaints.

As for the people in the graves that were walked upon, they had no comment. Because they are dead and dead people don’t give comment.

[CBS]

Andrew has a mystery present for the boys which leads to Brian whispering to fish and Justin leering at strangers from a tree branch, waiting to strike. The gang finishes talking about faster than light neutrinos. The gang begins talking about faster than light neutrinos. Andrew struggles with his decision to go green. Brian’s theory on sacrificing his body for trans-planet teleportation is put to a disgusting test.

Support the show by purchasing Andrew’s new book The Chronological Man: The Monster In The Mist for only 99¢ at Amazon.com by clicking the image below!

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Florida Panhandle resident Stephanie Pistey is currently on trial as an accessory to the murder of a 16-year-old friend. When explaining to a local television station her role in the death, she cited a supernatural bloodlust:

Cracking a smile, she said: ‘I know this is going to be crazy. But I believe I’m a vampire – part vampire and part werewolf, so it’s not really a cult, it’s more just like my personality.’

Pistey’s fiancee is accused of murdering 16-year-old Jacob Hendershot.

The Daily Mail reports that Pistey posted the following on her Facebook page days after the alleged murder:

On August 20, days after changing her relationship status to ‘engaged,’ she posted: ‘Yea were merryied and hes going to die hes the one that killed jacob hendershot well i let him i wanted the blood.’

Pistey has since claimed her account was hacked.

[Daily Mail]

If you’ve used hallucinogenic mushrooms (active ingredient psilocybin) in the past year, you could still be feeling the effect. Long past peaking, 60% of participants in a Johns Hopkins study found a marked rise in openness a far as a year past initially tripping their faces off.

Openness is defined as such:

…traits related to imagination, aesthetics, feelings, abstract ideas and general broad-mindedness.

The changes were measured against the normal shift in adult personality. Researches said that openness is traditionally something that decreases as one gets older.

Here is another fun fact to the study, more than half of the 51 participants had postgraduate degrees. Higher learning, indeed.

[Science Daily]

At a National Press Club luncheon today, Elon Musk, head of SpaceX announced plans for a reusable rocket that could dramatically lower the cost of going into space by a factor of 100. By amortizing the hardware costs over a lifespan of 1,000 launches, the capital costs per launch would be $50,000 (plus $200,000 in fuels costs and support). He compares the goal of the rocket to achieve the same level of reliability as a 747.

SpaceX envisions a three stage rocket where each stage returns to Earth via powered flight, as opposed to crashing into the ocean or burning up in the atmosphere.

In a speech that outlaid his goal of seeing humanity becoming an interplanetary species, he explained the need for this technology to help humanity make a permanent settlement on Mars. Musk suggested the cost of such a trip could eventually fall to the price of an ‘average California home’.

SpaceX

Click the image below for an awesome animation of their space flight mission profiles:

Along with announcement for an Elon Musk appearance at the National Press Club, SpaceX revealed new conceptual images laying out their vision for the future of spaceflight.

One image gives us our first look at what is probably the ‘Grasshopper’ reusable vertical take-off and landing rocket that SpaceX sought permission from the FAA to test at their McGregor field launch facility.

For more images, including the Dragon capsule doing a landing, check out the SpaceX page.

Those ambitious folks at SpaceX aren’t going to let American enterprise sit out the new space race. They’ve requested permission to test out a vertical take-off and landing rocket system at their test site in McGregor, Texas.

Although building on existing systems, like their Merlin engines, this is a new area of space flight for them. Previously they’ve focused on the more traditional approach of single-use rockets.

Recently, Jeff Bezos backed Blue Origin, tried a similar test, which ended in a crash after attaining 45,000 feet of altitude.

Both programs are very similar to the McDonnell Douglas DC-X single-stage vertical take-off and landing program which was abandoned in the 1990’s.

The FAA document

via SpaceRef.com and NasaWatch.com

Welcome to the big leagues Ireland. You’ve just confirmed your first ever case of spontaneous human combustion!

The pioneer went by the name Michael Faherty, he was 76.

“This fire was thoroughly investigated and I’m left with the conclusion that this fits into the category of spontaneous human combustion, for which there is no adequate explanation,” he said.

This would also represent the first confirmed spontaneous human combustion case this decade.

[BBC]

Wrangled by a man in overalls, friends with people in devil costumes, ladies and gentleman: Medusa, the world’s largest snake.

Simone Allyne is the Weird Things eBook reviewer focusing on readily available, affordable Science Fiction and Fantasy. If you have a book you’d like reviewed, please email WeirdThingsMail@Gmail

Imagine a world a millennia from our current time line. Humanity is still engaged in warfare, but now has it down almost to an exact science. Government-funded armies still exist, however there are also independent mercenary groups for hire ready to engage in campaigns. In this enjoyable sci-fi action and adventure, author Jed Fisher has conjured up an entire universe in such detail that the reader can easily become engrossed in it.

First Enlistment: War for Profit Part One follows a group of boys fresh from one of many military academies, as they enlist for their first taste of warfare. First Enlistment, the first book of three currently in the War for Profit series, focuses on the details of soldiering; for example weapons training, and tactics. In particular, the author focuses on a cadet’s mission inside a tank and the technical knowhow that goes along with it.

The book is very action oriented, and draws heavily on the author’s military background. As I continued reading, I found myself thinking of this book as a sci-fi inspired telling of Full Metal Jacket.  The story focuses very heavily on military themes, and very little on the backgrounds of its characters. It does not delve into how or why they ended up on different planets that don’t seem to be located in our galaxy. This however is not necessarily a detriment to the story though, as readers with similar interests will feel right at home, but I would have liked some of those other elements to be more fleshed out.

I liked the author’s story line and the characters were more or less believable. I did feel that the characters were not quite developed enough. It’s hard for me to put my finger on it, but the writing seemed “light,” incomplete, not quite enough depth. This book is also a little fast paced at times, and clear time frames that might have helped with this have been left out. It holds up like any good science fiction and I think you will enjoy this book.

So if you enjoy military and or sci-fi stories I know you will not be disappointed with First Enlistment: War for Profit Part One.

[Amazon]

A feral child in the woods of Germany lead the Gang into a rousing conversation that eventually ends with Hitler running a magical chocolate factory. Brian is tasked with stocking a new theme park with the most deadly animals on the planet, his choice for an apex predator leaves much to be desired. Justin justifies his belief in elves.

Support the show by purchasing Andrew’s new book The Chronological Man: The Monster In The Mist for only 99¢ at Amazon.com by clicking the image below!

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Download url: http://www.itricks.com/upload/WeirdThings092111.mp3

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