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Wednesday, 26 September 2012

Kongamato

The Kongamato ("breaker of boats") is a reported pterosaur-like creature said to have been seen by natives and explorers in the Mwinilunga district's Jiundu swamps of Western Zambia, Angola and Congo in Africa. Suggested identities include a modern-day Rhamphorhynchus (pterosaurs lived in the area of Africa where Kongamato has been sighted), a misidentified bird (such as the very large and peculiar Saddle-billed Stork), or a giant bat. No photos or footage have been taken, leaving most of the stories to rely on large wounds and eyewitness accounts.

The Kongamato has been seen by African natives and European explorers for some time, and almost all of the accounts say it is a reddish blackish creature resembling a pterosaurs. Some other people have come back with large, deep wounds that they claim to be from the Kongamato. Eyewitness accounts say the creature has teeth, leathery wings, a beak, and claws. Some British scientists and explorers have shown natives drawings of pterosaurs, and the natives were said to have a terrified reaction. Skeptics of the creature claim the Kongamato is a hoax or a misidentification of a huge bat or a large stork. However, believers think that the beast has never been caught on film because as it supposedly lives in the thick vegetation of African swamps, there is not a good way to get a clear photo or film. Also, very few people know of this creature's supposed existence, and in the region it supposedly lives in, most people don't have cameras. If the Kongamato is real, there is likely more than one. Since the Kongamato was supposed to come up from underwater and upset canoes, the suggestion has also been made that the name originally referred to a freshwater stingray.

Frank Melland, in his 1923 book In Witchbound Africa, describes it as living along certain rivers, and very dangerous, often attacking small boats, and anybody who disturbed the creature. They are typically described as either red or black in color, with a wingspan of 4 to 7 feet. Members of the local Kaonde tribe identified it as similar to a pterodactyl after being shown a picture from Melland's book collection. In 1956 an engineer, J.P.F. Brown, allegedly saw the creature at Fort Rosebery near Lake Bangweulu in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). It was about 6:00 p.m. when he saw two creatures flying slowly and silently directly overhead. He observed that they looked prehistoric. He estimated a wingspan of about 3 to 3.5 feet (0.91 to 1.1 meters) and a beak-to-tail length of about 4.5 feet (1.4 meters). It reportedly had a long thin tail, and a narrow head which he likened to an elongated snout of a dog. The following year, at a hospital at Fort Rosebery, a patient came in with a severe wound in his chest, claiming that a large bird-like creature had attacked him in the Bangweulu swamps. When asked to draw the creature, he allegedly drew a creature resembling a pterosaur. This drawing does not appear to have survived to the present. It is curious to note that the area concerned is advertised as a prime birdwatching site, but this large, flying animal seems not to have been reported by any visiting birdwatchers. There are reports of similar creatures (no details given) from Angola, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, Tanzania and Kenya. The Kongamato may be related to what is called a "flying snake" in Namibia.

This might all be down to mistake of identity, considering that this creature was attacking people and their boats, so it could be down to crocodiles and a similar looking bird. But if the people who have been living there for many years should know the difference between the different animals, so maybe there might be a prehistoric animal living in the rivers of Africa. But considering there is no evidence to say that this creature exists and not everyone who visits the area see's it, it might just be overreaction to normal animal attacks. So for now we can't whether it does or does not exist, just have to keep looking for it.

Update

After many days, I've managed to set up our database for Cryptozoology, and I will continue posting information on the different subjects from it. The databases for the other subjects such as Paranormal, Extra-terrestrial, Science and History are hopefully going to be done in the next few months. Once everything's finished, I will hopefully have the website online then, where everything on the databases will be accessible.


Battle of Los Angeles

The Battle of Los Angeles was a air raid at Los Angeles, California, United States during late 24 February to early 25 February 1942.

Reported Photo of the Air Raid
The incident occurred less than three months after the United States entered World War II as a result of the Japanese Imperial Navy's attack on Pearl Harbor, and one day after the Bombardment of Ellwood on 23 February.

Air raid sirens sounded throughout Los Angeles County on the night of 24–25 February 1942. A total blackout was ordered and thousands of air raid wardens were summoned to their positions. At 3:16 am the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade began firing 12.8-pound anti-aircraft shells into the air at reported aircraft; over 1,400 shells would eventually be fired. Pilots of the 4th Interceptor Command were alerted but their aircraft remained grounded. The artillery fire continued sporadically until 4:14 am The "all clear" was sounded and the blackout order lifted at 7:21 am
In addition to several buildings damaged by friendly fire, four to five civilians were killed by the anti-aircraft fire, and another three died of heart attacks attributed to the stress of the hour-long bombardment. The incident was front-page news along the U.S. Pacific coast, and earned some mass media coverage throughout the nation.

A careful study of the evidence suggests that meteorological balloons—known to have been released over Los Angeles—may well have caused the initial alarm. This theory is supported by the fact that anti-aircraft artillery units were officially criticized for having wasted ammunition on targets which moved too slowly to have been airplanes. After the firing started, careful observation was difficult because of drifting smoke from shell bursts. The acting commander of the anti-aircraft artillery brigade in the area testified that he had first been convinced that he had seen fifteen planes in the air, but had quickly decided that he was seeing smoke. Competent correspondents like Ernie Pyle and Bill Henry witnessed the shooting and wrote that they were never able to make out an airplane. It is hard to see, in any event, what enemy purpose would have been served by an attack in which no bombs were dropped, unless perhaps, as Mr. Stimson suggested, the purpose had been reconnaissance. 

While this story does sounds like it was only war-nerves, considering the fact that if light was shined onto the surface it would have glowed like a UFO, and with all the confusion and smoke from the bombardment it might cause people to see all sorts of things. With all the evidence from this story, it does seem more like it was a false alarm and not a alien sighting. But it's still a possibility that it could have been a UFO's flying around, but for now the evidence outweighs this.

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

The Bloop

The Bloop is the name given to an ultra-low frequency and extremely powerful underwater sound detected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1997.

The sound, traced to somewhere around 50° S 100° W (a remote point in the south Pacific Ocean west of the southern tip of South America), was detected several times by the Equatorial Pacific Ocean autonomous hydrophone array. This system was developed as an autonomous array of hydrophones that could be deployed in any oceanographic region to monitor specific phenomena. It is primarily used to monitor undersea seismicity, ice noise, and marine mammal population and migration. This is a stand alone system designed and built by NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) to augment the U.S. Navy Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS), equipment originally designed to detect Soviet submarines.

According to the NOAA description, it "rises rapidly in frequency over about one minute and was of sufficient amplitude to be heard on multiple sensors, at a range of over 5,000 km." The NOAA's Dr. Christopher Fox does not believe its origin is man-made, such as a submarine or bomb, or familiar geological events such as volcanoes or earthquakes. While the audio profile of the Bloop does resemble that of a living creature, the source is a mystery both because it is different from known sounds and because it was several times louder than the loudest recorded animal, the Blue Whale.

The Bloop is very strange, and is hard to give a accurate answer, if it is in fact biological then it must be a create of titan proportion that lives in the Pacific ocean. An interesting note is that other similar noises have been recorded in the same general area. But it is unknown if this is a animal or just noises of ice moving in the Antarctic, but if it was, it should be quite a normal occurrence.

The Bloop Noise:

Dover Demon

The Dover Demon is an alleged creature sighted on three separate occasions during a 25-hour period in the town of Dover, Massachusetts, United States on April 21 and April 22, 1977.

The Dover Demon was first seen outside near a bar by three seventeen-year-old boys who were driving through the Massachusetts area when the car's headlights illuminated it. Bill Bartlett, the driver, reported that he saw what he thought at first was a dog or a cat, but upon closer inspection realized that it was a bizarre, unearthly-looking creature crawling along a stone wall on Farm Street.
Bartlett continued to watch the creature, and he reported it to have a disproportionately large, watermelon-shaped head and illuminated orange eyes, like glass marbles. It had long, thin arms and legs with slender fingers, which it used to grasp onto the pavement. It was hairless and had rough, flesh-toned skin, described as tan and sandpaper-like. The creature's appearance was very plain, with no nose or ears, and no mouth was seen. The witness drawings portray its head as having a skull shape, forming the contour of a circle on top with a more elliptical ending projecting down to include where the nose and mouth would be.
Other witnesses have claimed the creature had green eyes and seemingly smooth, chalky gray toned skin, three feet tall, and made a bloodcurdling noise, similar to a hawk's screech combined with a snake's hiss. But all witnesses say it had no ears, mouth, nose, or known sex.
The creature was sighted again an hour later, by John Baxter, 15, and Pete Mitchell, 13, as they were walking home. He said it was bipedal and ended up running into a gully and standing next to a tree. The next day, Abby Brabham, 15, and Will Traintor, 18, driving down Springdale Avenue, claimed to have seen a similar-looking creature from Traintor's car, on the side of the road. Brabham's description matched Bartlett's and Baxter's descriptions, except this time the cryptid had illuminated green eyes. She approximated its height as "about the size of a goat". Investigators attempted to shake up Ms. Brabham by noting she said it had green eyes reflected by car headlights, while Bartlett mentioned orange eyes were reflected back to him by his automobile's lights. Ms. Brabham was steadfast in her description.
Bartlett, Baxter, Brabham, and Traintor all drew sketches of the monstrous sight shortly after their sightings. On the piece of paper that includes Bartlett's sketch, he wrote "I, Bill Bartlett, swear on a stack of Bibles that I saw this creature."

I'm not quite sure whether this would be under Cryptozoology or classed as a alien encounter, because the creature described is very much like the Greys type aliens in most alien witness cases. While this is a strange event, there isn't any evidence other than the group of teenage witnesses testimonies. So it's hard to say, from a cryptozoology point of view i would say that this is a lie or bid for attention by some kids, but if we were to say this was an alien encounter, then it's more possible that this happened. In either case, i can't say what these kids saw that night without more evidence and witnesses, so we have to leave it to an unexplained encounter.   

Mothman

Mothman is a legendary creature reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area of West Virginia from 15 November 1966 to 15 December 1967. The first newspaper report was published in the Point Pleasant Register dated 16 November 1966, entitled "Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something".

On Nov. 15, 1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallette told police they saw a large white creature whose eyes "glowed red" when the car headlights picked it up. They described it as a "flying man with ten foot wings" following their car while they were driving in an area of town known as 'the TNT area', the site of a former World War II munitions plant.
During the next few days, other people reported similar sightings. Two volunteer firemen who sighted it said it was a "large bird with red eyes". Mason County Sheriff George Johnson commented that he believed the sightings were due to an unusually large heron he termed a "shitepoke". Contractor Newell Partridge told Johnson that when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field its eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors", and blamed buzzing noises from his television set and the disappearance of his German Shepherd dog on the creature. Wildlife biologist Dr. Robert L. Smith at West Virginia University told reporters that descriptions and sightings all fit the Sandhill Crane, a large American crane almost as high as a man with a seven foot wingspan featuring circles of reddish coloring around the eyes, and that the bird may have wandered out of its migration route.
There were no Mothman reports in the immediate aftermath of the December 15, 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge and the death of 46 people, giving rise to legends that the Mothman sightings and the bridge collapse were connected.

UFOlogist Jerome Clark writes that many years after the initial events, members of the Ohio UFO Investigators League re-interviewed several people who claimed to have seen Mothman, all of whom insisted their stories were accurate. Linda Scarberry claimed that she and her husband had seen Mothman "hundreds of times, " sometimes at close range, commenting, "It seems like it doesn’t want to hurt you. It just wants to communicate with you. "

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman claims that sightings of Mothman continue, and told USA Today he re-interviewed witnesses described in Keel's book who said Mothman was "a huge creature about 7 feet tall with huge wings and red eyes" and that "they could see the creature flapping right behind them" as they fled from it.

Joe Nickell says that a number of hoaxes followed the publicity generated by the original reports, such as a group of construction workers who tied red flashlights to helium balloons. Nickell attributes the Mothman reports to pranks, misidentified planes, and sightings of a barred owl, an albino owl, or perhaps a large snowy owl, suggesting that the Mothman's "glowing eyes" were actually red-eye effect caused from the reflection of light from flashlights or other bright light sources. The area lies outside the snowy owl's usual range and locals, unfamiliar with such a large owl, could have misidentified the bird. Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand notes that Mothman has been widely covered in the popular press, some claiming sightings connected with UFOs, and others claiming that a military storage site was Mothman's "home". Brunvand notes that the recount's of the 1966-67 Mothman reports usually state that at least 100 people saw Mothman with many more "afraid to report their sightings", but observed that written sources for such stories consisted of children's books or sensationalized or undocumented accounts that fail to quote identifiable persons. Brunvand found elements in common among many Mothman reports and much older folk tales, suggesting that something real may have triggered the scares and became woven with existing folklore. He also records anecdotal tales of Mothman supposedly attacking the roofs of parked cars inhabited by teenagers in lovers lanes.

From all evidence that is public, it seems that this might just be a hoax. as it seems that after the original encounters, the silver bridge collapsed, and then the reports stopped, may have something to do with any hoaxers believing anything more would be in bad taste or were morning themselves. But people still believe that this creature does exist to this day so it may have links to paranormal by the sounds of it, as a creature like this might not be able to survive long if it is a genetic disorder causing the problem. Some have even linked it to alien interaction, but it's hard to tell. Overall this either may be a hoax or just a simple mistake of identity. But maybe there is something else going on which is hidden from the public eye. Until there are more reports of it, we won't know.  


Monday, 24 September 2012

Agogwe

The Agogwe is a purported small human-like biped reported from the forests of East Africa. It is 1 to 1.7 m (3.3 to 5.6 ft) tall with long arms and long rust-colored woolly hair and is said to have yellowish-red skin under its coat. It has also been reported as having black or grey hair. Its feet are said to be about 12 cm (5 in) long with opposable toes. Alleged differences between it and known apes include a rounded forehead, small canines and its hair and skin color.

Captain William Hitchens claims to have seen in 1900: 

“Some years ago I was sent on an official lion-hunt in [east Africa] and, while waiting in a forest glade for a man-eater, I saw two small, brown, furry creatures come from dense forest on one side of the glade and disappear into the thickets on the other. They were like little men, about 4 feet high, walking upright, but clad in russet hair. The native hunter with me gazed in mingled fear and amazement. They were, he said, agogwe, the little furry men whom one does not see once in a lifetime.”

The Agogwe is also known as the Kakundakari or Kilomba in Zimbabwe and the Congo region. About 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in) tall and covered with hair, they are said to walk upright like humans.
In the Ivory Coast it is known as the Sehite.
"In Tanzania and northern Mozambique, they speak of the Agogure or Agogue, a human-like, long-armed pygmy with a coat the colour of fired earth. Although its appearance is said to be grotesque, the agogue is said to be more mischievous than menacing."

Another account comes from Charles Cordier:

“Charles Cordier, a professional animal collector who worked for zoos and museums, followed the tracks of the [Agogwe] in Zaire in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Once, said Cordier, [an Agogwe] had become entangled in one of his bird snares. “It fell on its face,” said Cordier, “turned over, sat up, took the noose off its feet, and walked away before the nearby African could do anything”

It is possible that the Agogwe is real, and is a surviving or diverging member of a old primate species. that has taken to hiding in the jungles of Africa. Also the fact that the science community  has now taken to asking people for any evidence of the Orang Pendek, a small hominid of the same description on the island of Sumatra. So overall, there may well be some surviving ancestors from earths past, that has taken to living in the undiscovered jungles, at the furthest corners of the world.