Post by auntym on Mar 5, 2015 13:10:38 GMT -6
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March 4, 2015
The 7 Paranormal Wonders of the World
We’ve been picking over the New Seven Wonders of the World, which was announced on July 7, 2007 (7/7/07, get it?), and frankly, we here at Area51.Org are underwhelmed. We have seven alternative wonders that might impress you a little more than the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall. They might even freak you out a little bit. A list of wonders needs a flavor of the unexplained or truly bizarre about it, and perhaps a certain paranormal bouquet.
#7 Easter Island Statues
Easter Island, Pacific Ocean
The heads have been silent for long enough. The truth is that they’re not just heads: there are whole torsos hiding underneath the soil. Easter Island HeadSure, scientists claim they know how the giant moai statues (more than 500 complete and as many unfinished) were built — if you believe the scientists. And there’s a lot of speculation about how they were transported to their resting places.
Even if this all didn’t require extraterrestrial intervention, as Erich von Daniken speculated in Chariots of the Gods, the moais of Easter Island still command our respect. At up to an imposing 33 feet high, they ought to. And there is some remaining mystery — with no trees on the island, how exactly did the natives get the giant, heavy statues some four miles from their source to their final resting places? Once there, why were they knocked down? Few realize that, until recent restoration attempts, the heads all lay on their sides, the victims of some change in tribal leadership, godhead or cosmic alliance?
#6 Oak Island Mystery Site
Oak Island, Nova Scotia
The year was 1795, and Donald McGinnis and a couple of friends, the teenage sons of settlers on a small island in Nova Scotia, found a large, circular depression in the ground with a tackle block hanging over it. A day of digging later and the boys thought they were on the way to finding Captain Kidd’s hidden treasure — a booty that had become legendary in that time.oakisland.png
Maybe it was pirate treasure — the boys never found out. Neither did the scores of others who spent years trying to dig it up. Some even gave their lives.
Why couldn’t they just dig up a buried treasure? Lots of reasons: for one, in 1802, when diggers had reached a whopping 90 feet beneath the surface, they discovered two things. First, they found an inscription that read “Twenty feet below, two million pounds lie buried.” Second, they found that whatever was below was protected by booby traps: three shafts connected directly to the ocean flooded the pit. Bailing was useless, and attempts to dig alternate shafts failed, too — more flooding booby traps.
What is most fascinating is that after over 200 years, no one knows what’s down there. And not for lack of trying: there have been almost continuous attempts at digging, but it’s still a very difficult proposition, excavating that deeply, even with modern equipment and techniques. The soil at those depths is unstable, making it nearly impossible for explorers to make progress.
One question we might have: since the original designers probably had a secret way of accessing the prize at the bottom, why haven’t investigators tried to figure out what that might be — and use it?
On a side note, a critical mind might wonder what exactly is paranormal about Oak Island. OK, we admit it: probably nothing. But in our own defense, this does involve a heavy dose of the unexplained — and so far, inexplicable. Close enough, don’t you think?
CONTINUE READING: blog.area51.org/?utm_content=buffered4cf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
March 4, 2015
The 7 Paranormal Wonders of the World
We’ve been picking over the New Seven Wonders of the World, which was announced on July 7, 2007 (7/7/07, get it?), and frankly, we here at Area51.Org are underwhelmed. We have seven alternative wonders that might impress you a little more than the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall. They might even freak you out a little bit. A list of wonders needs a flavor of the unexplained or truly bizarre about it, and perhaps a certain paranormal bouquet.
#7 Easter Island Statues
Easter Island, Pacific Ocean
The heads have been silent for long enough. The truth is that they’re not just heads: there are whole torsos hiding underneath the soil. Easter Island HeadSure, scientists claim they know how the giant moai statues (more than 500 complete and as many unfinished) were built — if you believe the scientists. And there’s a lot of speculation about how they were transported to their resting places.
Even if this all didn’t require extraterrestrial intervention, as Erich von Daniken speculated in Chariots of the Gods, the moais of Easter Island still command our respect. At up to an imposing 33 feet high, they ought to. And there is some remaining mystery — with no trees on the island, how exactly did the natives get the giant, heavy statues some four miles from their source to their final resting places? Once there, why were they knocked down? Few realize that, until recent restoration attempts, the heads all lay on their sides, the victims of some change in tribal leadership, godhead or cosmic alliance?
#6 Oak Island Mystery Site
Oak Island, Nova Scotia
The year was 1795, and Donald McGinnis and a couple of friends, the teenage sons of settlers on a small island in Nova Scotia, found a large, circular depression in the ground with a tackle block hanging over it. A day of digging later and the boys thought they were on the way to finding Captain Kidd’s hidden treasure — a booty that had become legendary in that time.oakisland.png
Maybe it was pirate treasure — the boys never found out. Neither did the scores of others who spent years trying to dig it up. Some even gave their lives.
Why couldn’t they just dig up a buried treasure? Lots of reasons: for one, in 1802, when diggers had reached a whopping 90 feet beneath the surface, they discovered two things. First, they found an inscription that read “Twenty feet below, two million pounds lie buried.” Second, they found that whatever was below was protected by booby traps: three shafts connected directly to the ocean flooded the pit. Bailing was useless, and attempts to dig alternate shafts failed, too — more flooding booby traps.
What is most fascinating is that after over 200 years, no one knows what’s down there. And not for lack of trying: there have been almost continuous attempts at digging, but it’s still a very difficult proposition, excavating that deeply, even with modern equipment and techniques. The soil at those depths is unstable, making it nearly impossible for explorers to make progress.
One question we might have: since the original designers probably had a secret way of accessing the prize at the bottom, why haven’t investigators tried to figure out what that might be — and use it?
On a side note, a critical mind might wonder what exactly is paranormal about Oak Island. OK, we admit it: probably nothing. But in our own defense, this does involve a heavy dose of the unexplained — and so far, inexplicable. Close enough, don’t you think?
CONTINUE READING: blog.area51.org/?utm_content=buffered4cf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer