$1 Million Prize is being offered for capture of Bigfoot

The huge cash prize has already fired quite a buzz in Ohio where a new photograph has emerged.

Bigfoot Project Investments, Inc. is offering the chance to win a $1 million 'Bigfoot Bounty' in exchange for "information leading to the capture or delivery of a bona fide Bigfoot."

The controversial challenge runs from April 2nd until December 25th.

So lucrative is the sum of money on offer in fact that the team behind the challenge have already found themselves being called out to Ohio to investigate a reported Bigfoot sighting in Girard.

The witness was Youngstown resident Xavier King who claimed he had been driving home recently when he caught sight of a strange creature.

"I had seen something, I don't know what it was, I had seen something, that's all I know. I got out and took a picture," he said.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that it has been submitted as part of the $1M challenge, the photograph has not been released to the public and probably won't be until the end of the year.

Whether anyone will have been able to claim the prize by then is yet to be seen.

Do you think Bigfoot is a real creature? Do you think Bigfoot is currently in Ohio? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section found down below.

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Best ever image of a Distant Star Revealed

The image shows Antares in extraordinary detail. 

A team of astronomers, led by Keiichi Ohnaka, of the Universidad Católica del Norte in Chile, has now used ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile to map Antares’s surface and to measure the motions of the surface material. This is the best image of the surface and atmosphere of any star other than the Sun.

The VLTI is a unique facility that can combine the light from up to four telescopes, either the 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes, or the smaller Auxiliary Telescopes, to create a virtual telescope equivalent to a single mirror up to 200 metres across. This allows it to resolve fine details far beyond what can be seen with a single telescope alone.

“How stars like Antares lose mass so quickly in the final phase of their evolution has been a problem for over half a century,” said Keiichi Ohnaka, who is also the lead author of the paper. “The VLTI is the only facility that can directly measure the gas motions in the extended atmosphere of Antares — a crucial step towards clarifying this problem. The next challenge is to identify what’s driving the turbulent motions.”

The astronomers found turbulent, low-density gas much further from the star than predicted, and concluded that the movement could not result from convection, that is, from large-scale movement of matter which transfers energy from the core to the outer atmosphere of many stars. They reason that a new, currently unknown, process may be needed to explain these movements in the extended atmospheres of red supergiants like Antares.

“In the future, this observing technique can be applied to different types of stars to study their surfaces and atmospheres in unprecedented detail. This has been limited to just the Sun up to now,” concludes Ohnaka. “Our work brings stellar astrophysics to a new dimension and opens an entirely new window to observe stars.”

To the unaided eye the famous, bright star Antares shines with a strong red tint in the heart of the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion). It is a huge and comparatively cool red supergiant star in the late stages of its life, on the path to becoming a supernova.

A 3D animation of Antares can be viewed below.

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2,000-Year-Old Tombs from Roman Period Found in Egypt

A series of tombs dating back about 2,000 years, to the time when the Romans controlled Egypt, has been discovered, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced yesterday 

Excavations at Bir esh-Shaghala in the Dakhla Oasis have uncovered tombs made of mudbrick and some are quite large containing multiple burial chambers. Some of the tombs have vaulted roofs and one tomb has a roof built in the shape of a pyramid. 

Five of the tombs were recently discovered while eight more were found within the past six excavation seasons, ministry officials said in a statement. 

Artifacts were found in the tombs, including mummy masks and pieces of inscribed pottery known as ostraca. Giant containers were also found that may have held wine or olive oil, although chemical tests will need to be done to confirm this. The discovery of the tombs was made by a team of archaeologists from Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities. The excavations at Bir esh-Shaghala are scheduled to continue.

The Romans took over Egypt in 30 B.C., following Cleopatra VII's suicide after her navy was destroyed by the Roman Emperor Octavian at the Battle of Actium. While the Roman emperors ruled Egypt from Rome, the Egyptians revered the emperors as pharaohs. Their traditional Egyptian funerary customs (including mummification) and religious practices continued until the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as its official religion during the fourth century A.D.

Located in the Western Desert, about 217 miles (350 kilometers) west of Luxor, the Dakhla Oasis contains a vast amount of archaeological remains that date from prehistoric to modern times. A number of settlements from the Roman era flourished in the Dakhla Oasis. In 2014, Live Science reported that one of the Roman era settlements in the oasis had yielded the remains of an ancient school covered with writing that included references to drug use.

Original article on Live Science.

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Masterton Monster

Masterton Monster (By Simon Winheld)

Masterton Monster is large, unidentified, vicious marine mammal was said to have had a brutal encounter with a pack of fierce hunting dogs, resulting in the unfortunate death of one of the canines.

The initial account comes to us from the "New Zealand Times" on May 9, 1883. Although there is almost no background information regarding this creature, the account still serves as one of the many examples of a legitimate news source chronicling a spectacular cryptozoological event.

According to the article, a large, unknown — though presumably marine — animal, with a broad muzzle, short legs and curly hair was reported near the town of Masterton. The report further stated that fearful townsfolk loosed their dogs upon the beast, at which time one of the canines was “flayed.”

The ferocity of the animal’s attack was enough to discourage the remainder of the dogs, who swiftly ran in the opposite direction. The account ends there, but from the few available details one can put together an intriguing, albeit hazy, image of the creature.

The description of its “short legs” would seem to indicate that the animal had feet instead of flippers, and the mention of “curly hair” has made many researchers lean toward a mammalian rather than reptilian or amphibious creature. Perhaps, when all is said and done, the Masterton Monster might have been nothing more than a large and mutated otter.

Although the creature has often been associated with the 1890 case of EUROA BEAST, it is interesting to note the  similarities between the creature described and the Australian BUNYIP, as well as the notorious “Irish Crocodile”, known in Gaelic as the DOBHAR-CHU.

This mysterious monster gained global fame when it was chronicled by the illustrious Charles Fort in his 1931 paranormal opus “Lo!”:

“New Zealand Times, May 9, 1883 — excitement near Masterton — unknown creature at large — curly hair, short legs, and broad muzzle. Dogs sent after it — one of the dogs flayed by it — rest of the dogs running away — probably ‘with their tails between their legs,’ but the reporter overlooking this convention.”

An Aerial View of Masterton Town

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'Karakoram anomaly' defies climate change

A 'vortex' of cold air breeze over the Karakoram mountain range has been causing glaciers to continue growing in spite of climate change, scientists have shown. 

This peculiar phenomenon, which has been dubbed the 'Karakoram anomaly', was studied recently by scientists at Newcastle University in the UK and is thought to explain how glaciers in some parts of the Himalayas have been acting differently to those across most other parts of the world.
During the winter, the vortex is thought to affect temperatures across the entire 2,000 kilometres mountain  range, but in the summer it contracts and its influence continues to affect only the Karakoram and western Pamir region.

Pamir mountains

This induces an anomalous cooling in summer which is different to the warming seen over the rest of the Himalaya.

Co-author Professor Hayley Fowler, says this Karakoram vortex goes some way to explaining why the glaciers in this region are behaving differently to those in most other parts of the world.

Karakoram Mountains

"While most glaciers are retreating as a result of global warming, the glaciers of the Karakoram range in South Asia are stable or even growing," said study co-author Professor Hayley Fowler.

"Most climate models suggest warming over the whole region in summer as well as in winter."

"However, our study has shown that large-scale circulation is controlling regional variability in atmospheric temperatures, with recent cooling of summer temperatures."

"[This] circulation system is currently providing a dampening effect on global warming, reducing glacial melt in the Karakoram region and any change will have a significant effect on ice melt rates, which would ultimately affect river flows in the region." 

Acting like a counter-weighted temperature control, the unique summer interaction of the Karakoram vortex and the South Asian Monsoon causes temperatures in the Karakoram and Pamir to cool while those in the Central and Eastern Himalaya are warming, and vice versa.

Lenin peak in Pamir mountains

Over recent decades, these vortex-monsoon interactions have resulted in stormier conditions over the Karakoram.

"This vortex provides an important temperature control," explains Newcastle University's Dr Nathan Forsythe, lead author of the study.

"It is therefore important to look at how it has changed and influenced temperature over the last century so we can better understand how a change in the system might affect future climate.

"This is of huge importance in terms of food security because of the large populations that rely on water resources from snow and ice melt from the mountainous catchments to grow their irrigated crops in the Indus Plains of the Sindh and Punjab states and provinces of Pakistan and India."

Source: phys.org

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Ancient Roman city "Little Pompei" unearthed in France

An archaeologist brushing a mosaic at Little Pompei

An "exceptional" archaeological find by French researchers is being dubbed a 'little Pompeii'.

"We're unbelievably lucky. This is undoubtedly the most exceptional excavation of a Roman site in 40 or 50 years," said Benjamin Clement, who is leading a 20-strong team of archaeologists on the banks of the Rhone river, about 30 kilometres south of Lyon.

The site unearthed on land awaiting construction of a housing complex covers an area of nearly 7,000 square metres, an exceptionally large size.

The remains of an entire Roman market district has been discovered by French archaeologists under villas and public buildings on the outskirts of the city of Vienne near Lyon, south-eastern France.

The discovery was made during excavations of almost 5,000 square meters of land, which began in April and are due to continue into December.

Clement said the remains contain well-preserved residences with mosaics in an excellent state.

The neighbourhood is believed to have been inhabited for around 300 years before being abandoned after the fires.

Many of the objects in place when the inhabitants fled, were conserved, turning it into a 'little Pompeii', a reference to the Roman city that was preserved after being buried by volcanic ash.

“We found three things, one of which is a part of Via Narbonensis which was the biggest road in southern France in the antiquity.”

"It's a marketplace that has been totally burned down, so you can find all the elements in the shops that the craftsmen had left behind to escape the flames," he said. "The other thing is the domus, the well-preserved aristocratic houses, with over 19 uncovered mosaics that enable us to better understand the ways of life in Vienne 2,000 years ago."

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Felixstowe Fire Demon

On an autumn evening in 1965, a group of British youths were cruising the town when one of them had a terrifying encounter with a fiery demon that would leave him scarred for life.

Felixstowe is an Edwardian seaside town nestled on the North Sea coast of Suffolk, England. The bustling hub offers a plethora of fascinating sights, but none so strange as the one seen by a group of friends who were joyriding through the town on their way toward Essex at approximately 10:30 pm. on the eve of September 20, 1965.

The group consisted of the driver, 25 year-old Geoffrey Maskey, and his passengers, Mavis Fordyce and Michael Johnson. For reasons not know, Maskey pulled over to the curb next to a hedgerow on the tree lined Walton Avenue.
The youngsters were engaged in lively conversation when Johnson abruptly opened the car door and wandered out into the murky night. Fordyce and Maskey exchanged perplexed glances as their cohort vanished into the Stygian blackness, but simply assumed he had gone to use the bathroom in the woods.

Just moments after Johnson disappeared behind the shrubbery skirting the woods, Maskey and Fordyce heard what they described as a “high-pitched humming” sound. Fordyce grew anxious as the loud humming noise began overwhelming them and Maskey leaned out the window to try and determine the origin of the annoying noise

It was then that he observed an oval-shaped, orange object suspended in the sky over 90-feet above his car. He estimated that the UFO was about 6-foot wide and both he and Fordyce claimed that it was glowing so brightly that it bathed the surrounding countryside in its eerie orange glow.

After the event seemed to have ended, the two friends realized that Johnson was still in the woods. Anxious, they started to call him, without success. Maskey threw his car in reverse gear before calling him again.At the end of a few moments of distress, Michael finally reappeared, but he looked shocked, staggering and holding his head. His friends first believed he was joking, but when the young man suddenly collapsed, they rushed to help him.

Fordyce tried her best to make Johnson comfortable as Maskey hopped behind the wheel and sped away from the forbidden forest and the strange orange light toward the nearby Felixstowe hospital.
Once at the hospital Johnson regained consciousness, but he was suffering from amnesia and could not recognize the friends who had rescued him, much to their dismay. The doctors on duty at the relatively small hospital diagnosed a serious case of shock.

They also noted that he had unusual burn marks on the back of his neck and a contusion above his right ear. The doctors then decided that it would be best to transfer Johnson to the hospital of Ipswich, which was far better equipped to deal with Johnson’s injuries and psychological condition.

The following day Johnson recovered his lost senses and when his friends came to visit him he told them of his mysterious encounter with a strange alien entity in the woods next to Walton Avenue. Johnson claimed that when he abruptly got out of the car the night before he was compelled to do so by an unknown pressing “force,” which insisted that he go into the woods.

Johnson told his friends and doctors that he was forced to walk into the dark forest — although he was unable to recall the distance— where he encountered what he described as a humanoid being with large luminous eyes that were glowing in the darkness.

Johnson swore that he had no memories of what happened next, until he woke up the following morning in a hospital bed. It is obvious that the doctors who heard this young man’s bizarre tale were skeptical to say the least and the newspaper reporters from the Ipswich Evening Star who published the strange account on September 21, 1965, were equally incredulous.

Nevertheless, Johnson’s friends  who had bore witness to the fiery, egg-shaped UFO with their own eyes — believed their pal and knew all too well that something strange and terrifying had transpired in the woods near Walton Avenue that dark night.

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