Crashed UFO In Baltic Sea

For now, it’s an unidentified submerged object. But a strange circular formation deep below the Baltic Sea has sparked great excitement among UFO believers who think it might be a crashed flying saucer.

While searching for shipwrecks in the waters between Finland and Sweden on June 19, a Swedish team of nautical salvagers say they uncovered a “very strange anomaly” — a round object about 60 feet across resting about 300 feet below sea level.

“You see a lot of weird stuff in this job, but during my 18 years as a professional I have never seen anything like this. The shape is completely round,” Peter Lindberg, leader of The Ocean Explorer team, told the local press, according to MSNBC.

The circular object — described by Gizmodo as resembling Star Wars’ Millenium Falcon — is also trailed on one side by what appears to be a lengthy patch of displaced seabed.

That has lead some UFO believer to surmise the strange circle is a wrecked UFO, which crashed onto the seafloor and left behind a path of destruction measuring some 900 feet, according to News.com.

WATCH:

The object could, of course, be a natural phenomena, or something manmade.

Without any assurance it was otherworldly, The Ocean Explorer team initially said it had no intention to pursue further investigation after publicizing the finding.

“It is not in our sphere of interest to go for this object since the cost for each hour out on the sea are tremendous,” wrote Lindberg, whose company has made a name for itself by searching for “fluid gold” — bottles of champagne, wine and liquor that can be retrieved from shipwrecks, with great profit.

“Since it might be nothing we can not afford spending funds just to have a look at it, even if it might be a ‘new’ Stonehenge standing on the bottom.”

But thanks to international media coverage, interest from around the world and perhaps some donations, The Ocean Explorer team appears to have had a change of heart.

“We will go out again soon to document and film the object,” reads a message on the website. “We have received many emails that people want to donate money to the project. We are very grateful for your donation.”

On the Ocean Explorer Facebook page, where team members have already started advertising “Secrets Of The Sea 2011-12” shirts decorated with a picture of the round object on the seafloor for $20, Lindberg wrote the following message:

Ok folks here are some relevant information; We will equipe the ROV with a real time 3D-sonar so we can get really nice images at close range . . . [W]e will use a multibeam sonar and an ordinary side scan sonar. We will have divers with rebreather equipment with us but they will be sent down as a last option. We have also thought about geiger-equipment. But right now there is not enough funds so we can proceed, we working on it though

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Silent Night Time-Lapse

I’ve been hypnotized by many a nature time-lapse video this year, but this film capturing South Dakota winter is one of my new favorites. Shot back in February, the artist behind the piece says that most nights were subzero with a -25F wind chill. Using the Dynamic Perception Stage Zero dolly and the Milapse mount on most shots, Randy Halverson pushed some limits on exactly what kind of weather conditions this type of equipment can’t withstand.

Shot in South Dakota in early February with most nights sub zero with -25 F wind chill. Used Dynamic Perception Stage Zero dolly and Milapse mount on most of the shots.

The Stage Zero Dolly worked great in the sub zero temps.
dynamicperception.com/​

At :55 is an owl, and at 1:33 are Racoons moving near the attic of house.

Canon 60D and T2i
Tokina 11-16 – Great Lens
Tamron 17-50

Shot in RAW format, most shots were 20 seconds exposure F2.8 with 1 second interval between shots, for about 300 frames or so (several hours). There were a few 30 second and one 15 second exposures. ISO 1600

Music is “Scorpio” By Simon Wilkinson thebluemask.com
Simon’s music has also been used on Fox’s “24”

For licensing contact
dakotalapse.com
twitter.com/​dakotalapse
facebook.com/​pages/​DakotaLapse/​111818295557281

The True Power Of People

I happened upon an article that sparked my interest and shows the power that we do have as a country. Mothers Day is almost upon us, and even in an economic pinch we continue to raise sales numbers every year. 14.6 Billion by 2010 statistics. (

Can we stop for a second and maybe pass on a corporate holiday? Do you have something you can better spend your money on? Save the world lately? Together we can achieve. Your mom will still love you.  Your dollar is your vote. Spend wisely..

Mother’s Day Spending To Rise

Washington, DC — An average of $126.90 will be spent per consumer on Mother’s Day gifts this year, compared with $123.89 in 2009, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). Total U.S. spending on the holiday is expected to reach $14.6 billion.

Some channel shifting has also been identified in the organization’s 2010 Mother’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, suggesting one-third of shoppers will visit department stores, compared with 27.2 percent last year. Specialty and jewelry stores in particular will see the most traffic, NRF suggests, and 19 percent are expected to shop for Mother’s Day items online.

Segmented by gender and age, the survey concludes men will spend more than women on Mother’s Day, at an average of $154.74, while women will ring up about $100.46. Adults 25 to 34 years old will spend the most at $156.84 with young adults spending only slightly less at an average of $155.52 per person.

NRF spokeswoman Kathy Grannis says candy, in particular, is a Mother’s Day staple. “A last-minute box of chocolate or gourmet candy is always welcome. Most women would agree there’s nothing wrong with a sweet tooth and treating Mothers with chocolate is a great way to celebrate them.”

via Candy&SnackToday

NASA Says Stay Calm

When the Lyrid meteor shower hits full strength Friday and Saturday morning, it will mark a sort of planetary triple crown: Earth Day, Good Friday and Passover.

The Lyrids are one of the oldest known showers, creating a light show usually seen easily from Earth — and completely harmless.

Until recently, though, plenty of sky watchers thought Earth would now be starting a 25-year countdown to planetary holocaust — April 13, 2036, when the 270-meter-wide asteroid dubbed 99942 Apophis would hammer our home world with the force of two Krakatoas. Not enough to crack Earth like a rotten coconut, but enough to ruin a lot of people’s day.

Alamy

An illustration of asteroid Apophis nearing Earth. NASA officials insist that, contrary to the dire fears of Russian scientists, Apophis will not hit our planet in 2036.

Today, however, NASA officials are more likely to grumble in private that Apophis is the cosmic clod that just won’t go away. “We are confident it will be a non-issue,” said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Apophis looms in the public’s imagination for good reason. In February, Russian scientists made a more-dire-than-necessary prediction: that Apophis, named for the Egyptian god of Chaos, would blast the planet to borscht in 25 years.

Perhaps in the grip of Apophic apoplexy two years earlier, Russia had announced mission plans with the intent to deflect the rock away from Earth. That approach was criticized for fear it might actually have the opposite effect.

Also, the French proposed sending a group of solar sails toward Apophis to reflect radiation at it, hoping to change its course.

Even more confusing is the possibility that, in April 2029, Apophis — with a similar orbit to Earth’s around the sun — might pass through a “gravitational keyhole,” a section of space subject to concentrated gravity about twice its size. In theory, that could alter its orbit enough to swing it back to hit Earth in 2036.

“Earth’s gravitational tugs are just enough to modify [Apophis’] orbit,” Yeomans told AOL News, but he added that the chances of this actually happening are 1 in 250,000 and likely to get smaller.

That level of risk is in between dying in a flood — 1 in 175,803 — and getting blown up by fireworks, 1 in 386,766 (death by gunshot risk is 1 in 306, and that hasn’t prompted the repeal of the Second Amendment, after all).

continue via AOL

Wish Upon A Star

This time-lapse video of the Milky Way will blow your mind.

Terje Sorgjerd is on a roll. After capturing some amazing footage of the Aurora Borealis recently (though not the famous footage out of the plane window) he’s back with this incredible video that looks like something out of Planet Earth. His time-lapse shots of the Milky Way show a stunning sky, backlit with an incredible aura.

It really makes you feel small, and in awe of the universe.

The time-lapse footage was captured between April 4th and 11th, 2011, from atop El Teide, Spain’s highest mountain. At one point a sandstorm blows across, which rendered Sorgjerd unable to see the sky, but left his camera with some stunning images.

Warning Zombies Ahead

For anyone who doesn’t recall the driver’s ed section on avoiding undead life forms, you might want to steer clear of South Carolina for a few days.

“Zombies Ahead,” “Watch for Hunters” and “Be Alert for Tanks” are the three warnings that drivers on Lancaster County’s S.C. 160 recently encountered from two seemingly tampered with electronic road signs, the Rock Hill Herald reports.

The pair of highway signs, contracted through construction company CR Jackson, were intended to alert drivers of upcoming night road paving scheduled to begin March 27.

YouTube

South Carolina drivers didn’t expect to enter the Twilight Zone while traveling on S.C. 160.

Since the errant messages were discovered shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday, they have become a sort of mystery to Department of Transportation officials.

“It wasn’t obvious that someone broke into it,” said Jason Johnston, a DOT district construction engineer. “It’s not our board, so we can’t program. We can’t look at the records to see what happened. And we don’t know if it was left unlocked.”

Ken Wilson, resident construction engineer for the state’s Lancaster County DOT, told The Herald that someone would need to be physically present at the sign in order to tamper with it.

“It’s my understanding that they would need a key to get into the box and a certain code to change the wording,” Wilson said.

Wilson added that as far as mischief goes, a night of the living dead isn’t all that bad.

“The message could have been a lot worse than it was,” he said. “In my opinion, it was a prank. They could have put something more sinister, something causing more panic.”

The construction company did not contact authorities and plans to address the matter internally.

A number of YouTube videos, including the one below, appear to show signs of a zombie presence.

How To Survive Rising Food Costs

The U.S.Department of Agriculture has confirmed what you likely already know: Food prices are on the rise. In January, the department forecast a price increase of 2.5% for 2011; last week, they upped that to between 3% and 4%.

We’re expected to see the bulk of that increase toward the second half of the year, but you — the consumers — know it’s already pretty evident: Major food manufacturers like Sara Lee (SLE) and ConAgra (CAG) are starting to increase prices on items such as frozen meals and deli meats. And other companies, like Kraft (KFT), may reduce the size of packaging to cut costs.

All this translates to a higher grocery bill for you.

What is driving these price hikes? I’m not just talking about the soaring gas prices we’ve been shaking our heads over. Beginning in July of last year, we also started to see a pretty sharp increase in corn prices, according to Darrel Good, an agricultural economist and professor at the University of Illinois.

“The price of corn has basically doubled since the end of June last year,” Good says. “There are three or four factors that are fundamental to rising prices, but first and foremost, crop problems resulted in a smaller-than-expected output.” We also saw a rapid expansion in demand due primarily to corn’s use in ethanol.

But corn’s not the only problem. There’s been an increased demand for soybeans. Meat prices, too, are headed up, because of large price increases for livestock cattle and hogs. Producers of livestock have been slowly losing money, so they’ve reduced supply. And as basic college economics taught us, when the supply is down, prices go up.

So the question is, how do you cope? I have four suggestions:

continue via DailyFinance

Is the United States Broke?

The U.S. Treasury is depleting its cash at an accelerating pace, drawing down its cash balance by $81.6 billion in the just the first four days of March, leaving the federal government with only $108.9 billion on hand, according to the Daily Treasury Statement released Monday afternoon.

At the beginning of February, the Treasury had $349.1 billion in cash on hand, but spent that down by $158.5 billion during the month, ending February with only $190.6 billion on hand.

Were the government to continue to draw down its cash balance at the $20.4 billion-per-day rate that prevailed in the first four days of March, it would spend its way through its final $108.9 billion in little more than five days.

Under current law, the U.S. Treasury may only run the national debt up to $14.294 trillion. At the end of February, according to the Treasury’s Monthly Statement of the Public Debt, the total debt subject to this legal limit was $14.142331 trillion—just $151.669 billion short of the limit.

Had the Treasury not spent down the $81.6 billion in its cash balance in the first four days of this month and borrowed that money instead, it would have significantly reduced its remaining legal borrowing authority.

For the Treasury to borrow more than the current $14.294-trillion limit, Congress and President Barack Obama will need to enact new legislation authorizing the Treasury to increase the national debt up to whatever new limit they find agreeable.

The Treasury’s largest single expenditure in the first four days of March, according to the Daily Treasury Statement, was paying off maturing debt. During those four days, Treasury paid $128.477 billion to redeem old bonds. At the same time, it borrowed $133.196 billion by selling new bonds.

via CNSNews

UFO Disclosure Is Coming

Tell people you’ve seen a UFO, and you might get written off as a nut — and indeed, there are nuts out there.

But even in the last few years, there have been UFO sightings that can’t easily be explained away, along with testimony from highly credible witnesses.

At the 20th annual International UFO Congress, or IUFOC, nearly 30 speakers will travel from around the world to Scottsdale, Ariz., on Wednesday for a five-day conference with topics including alien technology, government cover-ups, black projects, crop circles and ultimate disclosure of extraterrestrial visits to Earth.

“This year is pretty exciting because we have a very credible lineup — we’re really bringing a strong ex-military presence. We have six retired military personnel, three of whom were officers,” said Alejandro Rojas of Open Minds Production, which is hosting the event.

OpenMinds.tv

The 2011 International UFO Congress is bringing nearly 30 speakers to Scottsdale, Ariz., this week to present scientific, military, technological and societal information to the public about UFOs.

“It’s one thing to hear about here and there where the media will focus on certain stories, but to have all of these people together in one spot, I think, can be very moving and very eye-opening,” Rojas told AOL News. “Especially when you see an abundance of people who are very credible and willing to talk openly about their beliefs that we’re being visited by extraterrestrials.”

The list of IUFOC speakers reads like a Who’s Who of all things otherworldly. It includes Paul Hellyer, former Canadian minister of national defense; retired U.S. Army Col. John Alexander, a UFO myth and reality insider; Linda Moulton Howe, an Emmy Award-winning TV producer and investigative reporter; nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman; best-selling cover-up and conspiracy author Jim Marrs; award-winning space and missile defense consultant Carol Rosin; and retired U.S. Air Force Col. Charles Halt, the highest ranking U.S. military officer speaking about his personal, dramatic UFO experiences while in the military.

Also on hand at the event will be Nick Pope, author of “Open Skies, Closed Minds” (Dell), who was, essentially, Britain’s real-life Fox (“X-Files”) Mulder when he headed up the British government’s UFO project at the Ministry of Defense, or MoD.

UFOs and Alien Encounters?

 

An unidentified flying object was photographed by a government employee over the Holloman Air Development Center in New Mexico in 1964. Conspiracy theorists have claimed the photo is proof that the U.S. government has been in contact with aliens.

UFOs and Alien Encounters?

An unidentified flying object was photographed by a government employee over the Holloman Air Development Center in New Mexico in 1964. Conspiracy theorists have claimed the photo is proof that the U.S. government has been in contact with aliens.

//

Pope’s analysis of UFOs and his access to classified government files on the subject eventually convinced him that while some unidentified flying objects represented a real mystery, they didn’t seem to threaten Britain’s national security.

“I was charged to investigate every UFO sighting reported to the ministry and to assess whether there was evidence of anything of any defense significance. Was there a threat or was there anything else of any more general defense interest?” Pope told AOL News.

“For example, if any of these sightings could have told us anything interesting about aerodynamics and propulsion systems, irrespective of what these things are, whether we detected any threat or not, that might have been interesting from a technological perspective.”

During Pope’s 21-year career at the Defense Ministry, he wore different hats, serving in a number of positions. In 1991, when he began his three-year stint in charge of the UFO division, he was initially skeptical about it all.

“The MoD’s position was: We don’t know what these things are, we don’t believe that they’re of any defense significance [because in the decades that they’d been investigating this, there’d been no evidence of any hostile intent], but the Ministry of Defense said it remained open-minded about the possibilities of extraterrestrial life. In other words, the department really wasn’t taking a view one way or the other.”

OpenMinds.tv

Author and investigator Nick Pope headed up the British Ministry of Defense’s UFO office for three years and emerged less of a skeptic than when he started.

His work led him to specific conclusions about UFOs.

“I think, like all those who have gone before me in any government UFO program, I found that most of these things, of course, had conventional explanations. I’d say 80 percent are explained as misidentifications of all the usual objects and phenomena that you would expect: aircraft lights, weather balloons, satellites, meteors, bright stars and planets, etc. I’d say about 15 percent insufficient information to make a meaningful assessment either way. And 5 percent unknown.”

Even though he had access to all kinds of UFO reports to pore over in his “X-Files” job, Pope was most interested in that elusive 5 percent of unknowns.

“With my Ministry of Defense background, it was very much sightings from police officers, pilots — both commercial and military — and sightings from radar operators (again, both civilian air traffic controllers and military fighter control). So, it’s those sorts of sightings that were of most interest to me.”

While Pope began his government research as a UFO skeptic, he didn’t end up a true-blue believer in little green men, either.

“But I certainly did come out a little less dogmatic in my skepticism, and I came out thinking, ‘Well, hey, wait a minute, there’s more to this than just aircraft lights and weather balloons and misidentifications and hoaxes and delusions.’

“I’m not saying that these things are extraterrestrial, but I emerged from that job thinking, ‘Well, you know what? I can’t rule out that possibility.’ I think my headline-finding, as it were, was that I knew what it wasn’t, but I didn’t know what it was.”

At this week’s IUFOC conference, Pope plans to talk about recent discussions by Britain’s prestigious Royal Society concerning the possibilities of contact with extraterrestrials.
“You hear a lot of people say that the day after it’s announced that we’re not alone — whatever form that announcement takes — you hear people say that the world will change forever. And one of the interesting points that was made at the Royal Society was, you know, actually it won’t.”

Whether or not UFO disclosure is around the corner, Pope says he’d be happy if one of the more exotic theories — such as extraterrestrials or interdimensionals — ends up being true.

And like his fictional counterpart, Fox Mulder, this investigator wants to believe the truth is out there.

“I absolutely hope that it turns out to be something like aliens. It would be a far more interesting world with aliens in it than not.”

via AOL