It’s time once again for my very random weekly wrap-up post. That’s right – time has no meaning here, and we’re doing it on Friday this week.
So have you heard about that Disneyland UFO?
- The Return Of Sky Hula Hoops
- Cow Sighting In Oklahoma
- Souls & A “Bad Bob” Sighting
- Weekly AI Nightmare
- Also In The News
The Return Of Sky Hula Hoops
A sighting of a ring in the skies over California’s Disneyland wound up on a popular UFO sightings Facebook page – and later on the pages of big tabloids – last month. The ring could be seen hovering over the Matterhorn Bobsleds roller coaster, while a witness on the video said, “It’s just this black ring in the sky. It’s moving up. What is that?”
Some have joked that it might have been a “Disney portal,” though the more likely explanation is that it was a smoke ring. While the person who shared the footage said that fireworks hadn’t started yet at the time the video was taken, I can personally attest to the fact that both Disneyland and Disney World have a lot going on at any given time, and there’s probably a fire happening somewhere in their theme parks. I could be wrong, of course!
This also isn’t the first time random Disney smoke rings have made the news, once last year and again back in 2020. They’re fairly common, and you can check out my old article on Sky Hula Hoops for a few more examples (and at least one unexplained ring).
Cow Sighting In Oklahoma
Shock and awe spread through paranormal circles last month with reports that residents of Oklahoma encountered what can only be described as a cow. The cow has been seen wandering around Lake Thunderbird in Norman, Oklahoma, and so has been dubbed the Thundercow.
That’s it. That’s the story. Residents say they’ve seen the cow in their own backyards, and have had a very tough time trying to capture her, which I suppose is a little mysterious. The Thundercow also only travels at night. Local news station Koco 5 asks, “Is this Norman’s very own Bigfoot?”
As funny as that might sound, if you think about it, Thundercow very well could become just that. Where do legends of cryptids originate, anyway? Are they real supernatural creatures, or do they sometimes begin their lives as mundane animals like cows that in time become legendary?
Souls & A “Bad Bob” Sighting
A couple interesting discussions on Reddit his week.
One asks the question: “Is there any evidence of a human soul?” This spawned nearly 2,000 comments debating the concept, with many sharing their personal experiences with loved ones passing away, as well as traumatic incidents leading to unusual outcomes. One recalls a sensation of “something departing from [his] body” as his sister passed after a car crash 5,000 miles away. Others discuss seeing the light go out of the eyes of those who pass, speculating that this could be the soul leaving the body, as well as experiences with OBEs. There’s a lot of good discussion and linked resources in there, so check it out.
Another submission over at r/Paranormal is a little less contemplative – it’s a picture of the so-called spirit “Bad Bob,” who the poster claims has haunted his younger brother for years. A photo taken by said brother appears to show a dark shadow person behind a bottle of mayonnaise. “When I showed it to my little brother,” the poster wrote, “he started crying and told me that’s the man that lives in his room, that’s who he called Bad Bob.” While the probability of this photo being a hoax is high, others have chimed in that they, too, have seen something similar. It might be time to get Agent Cooper back on the case.
Weekly AI Nightmare
I was pretty entertained by my AI paranormal post last week. I’m seeing other paranormal websites using AI-generated images for their paranormal news, which is both understandable and dubious at the same time. I’ve been making use of it, myself, but it verges on misleading to attach pictures like that to stories that are meant to be claims from reality.
In my opinion, of course.
Anyway, here’s an AI-generated commercial for Eldritch-Os, your #1 non-Euclidean breakfast cereal. Remember to eat with your eyes closed!
Also In The News
Dodos back in action? Biotechnology and genetic engineering startup Colossal Biosciences are collaborating with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation to not only bring the Dodo back to life, but provide it with a natural habitat similar to the one it once roamed. A very interesting quirk is that the resurrected Dodo may not be an exact replication of the original Dodo, but according to Colossal Biosciences, their goal is to “fill the niche left by an animal’s extinction.”
“By engineering a proxy species using the closest living relative, we have an opportunity to create an animal that is as close as possible to filling the niche left by the dodo on the island of Mauritius; a modern dodo.”
A Paranormal Activity video game is on the way. The trailer is just a teaser, but a PA game definitely seems to be in the works by Brian Clarke, the creator of The Mortuary Assistant (which seems like a pretty interesting game, so maybe this will turn out okay too!).
Cancel that vacation on Europa. New atmospheric samples from NASA’s Juno probe have shown that Jupiter’s moon has less molecular oxygen than scientists originally thought. This doesn’t completely remove the possibility that Europa’s subterranean oceans are habitable, though.
ATC recording of orange UFO sighting. “You’re gonna think I’m crazy,” one pilot told ATC during a flight out of Boston on February 12, “But there’s something that just went right to left to right in a blink and then flashed lights three or four times and then vanished.” The pilot described it as “bright orange,” and while other aircraft were near at the time, he was adamant that this was no ordinary airplane. You can hear the full ATC audio here.
Wrapping Up
It’s difficult to keep up with blogging these days, and I also just read a discussion about how blogging is effectively dead, anyway. Is that true? Maybe! It’s certainly not feeling very alive. Hey, let’s check out the status of one of the more popular paranormal websites out there (I won’t name names!).
Oh. Oh, no. Well, join me as we ride this sinking ship together, and maybe find a life raft or something along the way. Or at least become pirate zombies. I’m sure it’ll be fine!
