"The Unexplainable...."

[9876543210]

OK, here's a site that still has people baffled as to how it was built. And it was built relatively recently (1923 to 1951). Its called the Coral Castle and is just south of Miami, FL a few miles.

http://coralcastle.com/

It was built by a single individual (Edward Leedskalnin), apparently of very small stature (100 pounds) who claimed that "he knew the secrets used to build the ancient pyramids and if he could learn them, you could too."

I've heard about the site for years but have yet to visit. I do know that there are some very heated discussions in some communities about how he did it. Apparently, he would never let anyone watch as he was doing something but people in the area did see the results of his endeavors (I guess he only worked at night).

Just as an example, here's a brief story I heard a few years ago (I don't know how true it is). The story goes that a truck pulled up to the castle with a load of one of these huge pieces of coral (weighing several tons). Ed asked the truck driver to go do some errand for him for a few minutes which the driver did. A few minutes later the driver returned and the stone was on the floor. With nobody around except for him and Ed.

Just kind of an interesting place that needs further research.

[Pepper II]

Originally Posted by Futuro

Spontaneous combustion is still one big mystery.
As I saw following photo of remains of Dr. John Irving Bentley when I was maybe 8 years old and still find it very disturbing I post only a text-link to that photo:

This myth has been debunked in recent years. The body contains a lot of fat which smolders and burns slowly but quite hot (like tallow). In every case there has been an ignition source present and also in every case the victim was alone. Had someone else been present they would have extinguished the fire before it did any harm and we would never have heard about it. I saw a very interesting documentary in which the resulting scenario was duplicated using a pig carcass.
The only people interested in perpetuating this myth (aside from your assorted wackos) are those who have no interest in the facts but want to sell books or TV shows. That last statement also applies to aliens building our ancient monoliths, little green men visiting Roswell, and Jesus or the Madonna showing up on taco shells and water towers.

[electile disfunction]

Originally Posted by FlyStrat

And what about this guys?

Um, what is your question specifically about, please? (Easter Island statuary to their ancestors (and the resultant economic, religious, social, and ecological disasters) have been known to the world for some time.)

e.d.

[nevermind]

Perfect match...

The central buildings of Machu Picchu use the classical Inca architectural style of polished dry-stone walls of regular shape. The Incas were masters of this technique, called ashlar, in which blocks of stone are cut to fit together tightly without mortar. The Incas were among the best stone masons the world has seen, and many junctions in the central city are so perfect that it is said not even a blade of grass fits between the stones.

This is what i call a very clean cut. The stones match perfectly.
How the hell did they do that..?

[squigg58]

Originally Posted by Pepper II

That last statement also applies to aliens building our ancient monoliths, little green men visiting Roswell, and Jesus or the Madonna showing up on taco shells and water towers.

Too true! There are lots of things in life which cannot easily be explained ... such as how the hell my cat knows that the lady of the house (who spoils him rotten!) is on her way home, several minutes before she arrives ... and no, she doesn't get home at a set time, nor does she drive anything unusual. She doesn't even take an age to park ... she just turns into the road and parks in the drive. I reckon the little blighter must "sense" her about one mile away, at which point, he'll get up, stretch, and head for the front door. Great early warning system if I'm doing something I shouldn't!

Of course, he could have been dropped off by aliens at Roswell and then been transported here by magic ... but I doubt it!

What really bugs me about many "mysteries" is that there are often lots of likely explanations, but the reported ones are usually the most ridiculous!

Take the following example ... a "UFO" hovering over the Kremlin! I would, of course, just like to pint out that "UFO" means "Unidentified Flying Object" ... not "alien spaceship" ... but that doesn't stop the headline writers! This particular one has been likened to "Darth Vader's Imperial Cruiser" FFS!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...r-Kremlin.html

Putting "little green men" to one side, does anyone really think that if a space ship was hovering over the Kremlin for several hours, the sky wouldn't be filled with military helicopters, or that the entire area wouldn't have been sealed off? Oh hang on ... it was all a cover-up and the military didn't want to draw attention to it!

I suppose the headline "Balloon floats over Moscow" might not have been so attention-grabbing!

[RyderKnightley]

Originally Posted by Soft Pillow

While hoaxes deceived so many gullible types in the past there is no doubt in my mind that the events that occurred in 1947 cannot be disputed as much documentation exists to prove it as fact not fiction or speculation. I think one must be quite arrogant to assume that Earth is the only planet with living beings because no matter how sophisticated an alien life form's technology there's always the possibility of error. I must admit that I am rather pragmatic on issues involving this topic because most cases have been resolved with time including those who believe that Area 51 has crashed flying saucers! The image here is not from 1947 but is merely a rather accurate portrait based on extensive data on file.

Given the number of galaxies, the number of stars in those galaxies and the number of planets which must orbit those stars I would have to believe that there is alien life out there.
I would love to think that they were visiting us, but as they stand, the current laws of physics prevent anything from travelling faster than light. Even getting close to light speed would be difficult. However, there is still the question of worm holes. The laws of physics do allow for the existence of worm holes linking two distant parts of the universe. I am not a theoritical physicist, but I have a problem with worm holes. Maybe my brain is not expanded enough to take in this concept. But then physical laws also allow for the concept of time travel to the past as well as the future, but do any of us really beleive that that is a possibility? So how could they get here from there. Unless they come from our own solar system, which they obviously don't.
So no matter what evidence there is for Roswell or any other UFO sighting, as an engineer and scientist I have to reject them as false due to the underlying science being violated.

[Soft Pillow]

Originally Posted by RyderKnightley

Given the number of galaxies, the number of stars in those galaxies and the number of planets which must orbit those stars I would have to believe that there is alien life out there.
I would love to think that they were visiting us, but as they stand, the current laws of physics prevent anything from travelling faster than light. Even getting close to light speed would be difficult. However, there is still the question of worm holes. The laws of physics do allow for the existence of worm holes linking two distant parts of the universe. I am not a theoritical physicist, but I have a problem with worm holes. Maybe my brain is not expanded enough to take in this concept. But then physical laws also allow for the concept of time travel to the past as well as the future, but do any of us really beleive that that is a possibility? So how could they get here from there. Unless they come from our own solar system, which they obviously don't.
So no matter what evidence there is for Roswell or any other UFO sighting, as an engineer and scientist I have to reject them as false due to the underlying science being violated.

I also remain rather cynical much like you on such topics as a consequence of several deliberate hoaxes that were exposed but my choice is to keep an open mind on all issues especially if sufficient data is in existence. The potential of the human brain is remarkable yet so many of us are merely using only a percentage of its true capabilities.

[9876543210]

RyderKnightley,

Originally Posted by RyderKnightley

Given the number of galaxies, the number of stars in those galaxies and the number of planets which must orbit those stars I would have to believe that there is alien life out there.

Quite a few years ago I saw Carl Sagan talk at the U of Wisconsin and he said essentially the same thing. I think he even said that it would be virtually impossible for him to believe that there wasn't intelligent life on other planets.

However, there is still the question of worm holes. The laws of physics do allow for the existence of worm holes linking two distant parts of the universe. I am not a theoritical physicist, but I have a problem with worm holes. Maybe my brain is not expanded enough to take in this concept. But then physical laws also allow for the concept of time travel to the past as well as the future, but do any of us really beleive that that is a possibility? So how could they get here from there. Unless they come from our own solar system, which they obviously don't.

I'm not a physicist either but I do enjoy playing around with it a bit. I think, possibly, the problem lies in the Theory of Relativity and our understanding of it. Einstein proved that space and time are fluid and can be bent. Since it can be bent, then it is possible that someone could figure out how to modify space and time at will. This society is, of course, nowhere near figuring that one out but, who knows what will happen in the next 100 or so years (just remember where we were about 100 years ago. Nobody from 1910 would have believed where we were about to go).

[9876543210]

damp-patch,

Originally Posted by damp-patch

There are no secrets about the building of the pyramids. A few very clever people designed them and got an awful lot of other people with a lot of time on their hands to build them.

Well, actually, there are significant problems with the current archeologic theory about pyramid construction (the idea that huge ramps were used). It has been a while since I've done any research on this but I remember reading a paper which suggested the ramp idea had major problems because the ramps would have had to have been incredibly long and extremely difficult for the workforce to make the turns on the ramps. I believe it was also suggested that the workforce required just to build and maintain the ramps would have doubled or quadrupled the needed workforce and time requirements.

So even though the archeological community would like you to believe they have everything figured out, they don't. I could go on and on about that subject.

[RyderKnightley]

Originally Posted by 9876543210

Quite a few years ago I saw Carl Sagan talk at the U of Wisconsin and he said essentially the same thing. I think he even said that it would be virtually impossible for him to believe that there wasn't intelligent life on other planets.

I believe it was Carl Sagan who developed the formula to determine the number of inhabited planets in the universe. Factors included the known quantity of stars , esimates of how many would have planetary systems and the average number of planets they would have. However he also had terms which any intelligent life may be in existence for (he realised that catastrophes and self annihilation were could mean that some intelligent life came into being and then died out).
I believe that versions of the formula are still in use, but Sagan's original is no longer valid due to the gross underestimation of the sheer size of the universe.

Originally Posted by Soft Pillow

I also remain rather cynical much like you on such topics as a consequence of several deliberate hoaxes that were exposed but my choice is to keep an open mind on all issues especially if sufficient data is in existence. The potential of the human brain is remarkable yet so many of us are merely using only a percentage of its true capabilities.

I want to believe, but I have to dismiss whatever evidence and data simply because I believe it impossible to travel the vast distances required.
I don't think I have seen anything that couldn't be explained by other means.