Woman robbed after being placed in a trance.

Police in Germany are hunting two hypnotists in connection with a spate of unusual robberies.

66-year-old Sarah Alexeyeva told officers that she had been standing outside an Aldi supermarket when two women spoke to her and placed her in to a hypnotic trance.

The next thing she knew she was back in her armchair at home, completely unaware of what had happened. She soon discovered however that some of her valuables were missing.

"She claims that the pair put her into a trance in order to rob her," said police spokeswoman Sandra Mohr. "She had no idea how they did it, one minute she was being promised the future and the next she knew she was back home."

Despite the peculiar nature of the crime this isn't an isolated case - several other people are believed to have also been targeted by the same two women under similar circumstances.

"They seem to be able to get the interest of their victims with a promise to see the future," said Mohr. "But the only future they are promising is to rob their victims." 

Source: Mirror

IS THIS REAL OR FAKE? UFO sighting 2014

Rethinking Privacy: Google Glass Harassment & The Coming Age of Sousveillance

A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity.” – Dalai Lama

A woman was recently accosted at a bar in San Francisco for wearing Google Glass, and while I can sympathize to a certain degree with those disgruntled patrons who had not agreed to be recorded while out in public, I cannot help but wonder:  do these same individuals share a similar sense of outrage over the illegal monitoring and recording of all our digital data by the NSA? Many view Glass as a further intrusion of privacy, and as wearable/recordable tech becomes increasingly ubiquitous we are probably going to start seeing signs like these popping up in stores and restaurants all over the place.

This tech will force us to reconsider previously held notions of “public versus private” and that is not necessarily a bad thing, but another question worth asking might be: could this tech – when used responsibly – potentially help us to regain some sense of equilibrium and empowerment against the current surveillance state? Some companies, like FreedomPop, are hoping to fight back against the NSA by providing phone services which will guarantee “secure and anonymous voice, text and data communications”. This kind of encryption technology definitely seems like a step in the right direction, but what else can we be doing? By turning the cameras around on those who are doing the observing, are we fighting for a world of accountability and transparency or are we simply giving up more of our privacy?

Surveillance vs. Souseveillance

David Bollier has written a fantastic piece about sousveillance here, in which he discusses two new essays by Steve Mann, a “pioneer of wearable computing” and coiner of the term sousveillance. Mann describes sousveillance as such:

We now live in a society in which we have both “the few watching the many” (surveillance), AND “the many watching the few” (sousveillance). Widespread sousveillance will cause a transition from our one-sided surveillance society back to a situation akin to olden times when the sheriff could see what everyone was doing AND everyone could see what the sheriff was doing. We name this neutral form of watching “veillance” – from the French word “veiller,” which means “to watch.” Veillance is a broad concept that includes both surveillance (oversight) and sousveillance (undersight), as well as databeillance, uberveillance, etc.

It follows that: (1) sousveillance (undersight) is necessary to a healthy, fair and balanced society whenever surveillance (oversight) is already being used; and (2) sousveillance has numerous moral, ethical, socioeconomic, humanistic/humanitarian and practical justifications that will guarantee its widespread adoption, despite opposing sociopolitical forces.

Bollier then discusses several other key terms which Mann has also coined: “When surveillance and sousveillance are both treated equally – a more appropriate state – one can say that there is ‘equiveillance.’ More typically, however, there is ‘inequiveillance.’ If there is only one party consenting to the veillance, there is ‘univeillance,’ and if an absentee, non-participant records some or all parties while at the same time forbidding them from recording themselves, there situation can be described as ‘McVeillance’ – the unilateral ‘sensory entitlement’ that many business establishments assert over their premises. Mann also suggests that people may want to start using new ‘counterveillance’ technologies to detect and neutralize surveillance cameras. They could be worn on clothing as ‘spite fashion’ or ‘spitewear,’ if only as a social commentary. The point, he argues, is that we should all have ‘the right to sensory integrity.’ Everyone should have ‘a basic right to the data generated by their own senses.’ “

This last point is incredibly important, and lawyers are already speculating about whether or not the meta-data which is collected by the NSA can be used as evidence in court.

Sousveillance as Social Contract

To formally legalize this right, Mann and a colleague, Wassell, actually drafted a proposed law for the “policy, practice and enforcement of personal sousveillance.” Among the rights that the law would protect: the right of people to “capture video recording of their personal space for self protection and accurate records in any public place (including restaurants); even establishments that ban such practice.”

Mann suggests that the use of veillance technologies ought to follow the norms of contract law. If one party is using a veillance technology, then another party ought to be entitled to use their own counterveillance technology to record an interaction – just as any contract requires two informed, consenting parties. If the surveillance party prohibits or discourages people from sousveillance – which amounts to a copy of the “veillance contract” – then a court of law should regard the surveillance recordings as inadmissible evidence in any future proceeding – just as a contract produced by one party, without a countersigned copy, would be inadmissible.

To make this idea more practical, Mann has actually developed a fully functional “Wearable Wireless Webcam” for sousveillance, also known as “lifeglogging.” While I’m not sure I want all of my life’s interactions recorded like some airliner’s black box, I sympathize with Mann’s complaint that the exclusive right of unilateral veillance should not belong to property owners alone. The idea of a “social contract” must be honored in some meaningful fashion, especially as it becomes clear that one-sided surveillance powers can and will be abused.

Mann also gave a fantastic TED talk called Wearable Computing and the Veillance Contract:

Source: Disinfo

Bizarre: missing Malaysia Airlines passengers' phones ring, but no one answers

Beijing - The mystery surrounding the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has thickened somewhat as family members of passengers have reported mobile phones ringing, but nobody answering.

International Business Times reports that 19 families have signed a joint statement saying that passengers' cell phones connected after the flight had been reported missing. In each case, the phone would ring, but the call would be hung up. 
The sister of one of the Chinese passengers among the 239 people on board the missing flight rang his phone live on TV twice at 11:40 on Sunday morning and heard it ringing. She called again later that afternoon and heard it ring once more. 

The Mirror reports that she expressed her hope that if the call went through, police could locate the position. 

A man from Beijing also called his missing brother, and reported to the airline that the phone connected three times and rang before appearing to hang up.

Relatives who signed the joint statement have asked Malaysia Airlines to reveal any information they may have been hiding. 

The airline has not released any further details regarding the aircraft, however Malaysian Minister of Transport Hishammuddin Hussein said they were doing everything in their power to locate the plane and that they hope people understand that they are being as transparent as they can.

In the mean time, it has also been reported that the large oil slick spotted in the South China Sea, was found to be bunker fuel  and not that of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. 

These eerie happenings have, of course, given rise to a number of conspiracy theories, one of which purports that the aircraft may have been hijacked by terrorists bearing fake passports and is now secretly stationed at an abandoned Vietnamese airport at this very moment. 

According to 'citizen news' siteBeforeitsnews.com, the aircraft may have been landed safely by terrorists/hijackers to later be used as a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ with passengers and crew now being held as hostages.

New York Daily News reports that other theories suggest that the 100-ton Boeing 777 carrying 239 people simply disintegrated in the air at 35 000 feet, possibly due to an explosion.

According to Scott Hamilton, a US-based aviation expert, the plane had been inspected just 10 days before and found to be in a 'proper condition,' meaning that it was highly unlikely that an explosion would have been caused by an aircraft fault. 

He added that the airplane could only have been torn apart by a completely unexpected catastrophic event or a criminal act. 

Some of the crazier conspiracy theories, cited by examiner.com, suggest that the plane could have been intercepted by a visiting alien UFO or transported to another world via an outer space wormhole.

Laughable to many, but you have to admit that as the days tick by and no conclusive reports on the airplane's fate have been released, the incident is starting to look a lot like an X-Files case. 

Source: News24

Mysterious new man-made gases pose threat to ozone layer.

Scientists have identified four new man-made gases that are contributing to the depletion of the ozone layer.

Two of the gases are accumulating at a rate that is causing concern among researchers.

Worries over the growing ozone hole have seen the production of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases restricted since the mid 1980s.

But the precise origin of these new, similar substances remains a mystery, say scientists.

Lying in the atmosphere, between 15 and 30km above the surface of the Earth, the ozone layer plays a critical role in blocking harmful UV rays, which cause cancers in humans and reproductive problems in animals.

Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey were the first to discover a huge "hole" in the ozone over Antarctica in 1985.

The evidence quickly pointed to CFC gases, which were invented in the 1920s, and were widely used in refrigeration and as aerosol propellants in products like hairsprays and deodorants.

Remarkably, global action was rapidly agreed to tackle CFCs and theMontreal Protocol to limit these substances came into being in 1987.

A total global ban on production came into force in 2010.

Now, researchers from the University of East Anglia have discovered evidence of four new gases that can destroy ozone and are getting into the atmosphere from as yet unidentified sources.

The Halley Research Station in Antarctica, where the hole in the ozone layer was first discovered

Three of the gases are CFCs and one is a hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC), which can also damage ozone.

"Our research has shown four gases that were not around in the atmosphere at all until the 1960s which suggests they are man-made," said lead researcher Dr Johannes Laube.

The scientists discovered the gases by analysing polar firm, perennial snow pack. Air extracted from this snow is a natural archive of what was in the atmosphere up to 100 years ago.

Grim discovery

The researchers also looked at modern air samples, collected at remote Cape Grim in Tasmania.

They estimate that about 74,000 tonnes of these gases have been released into the atmosphere. Two of the gases are accumulating at significant rates.

"The identification of these four new gases is very worrying as they will contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer," said Dr Laube.

"We don't know where the new gases are being emitted from and this should be investigated. Possible sources include feedstock chemicals for insecticide production and solvents for cleaning electronic components."

"What's more, the three CFCs are being destroyed very slowly in the atmosphere - so even if emissions were to stop immediately, they will still be around for many decades to come," he added.

Other scientists acknowledged that while the current concentrations of these gases are small and they don't present an immediate concern, work would have to be done to identify their origin.

"This paper highlights that ozone depletion is not yet yesterday's story," said Prof Piers Forster, from the University of Leeds.

"The concentrations found in this study are tiny. Nevertheless, this paper reminds us we need to be vigilant and continually monitor the atmosphere for even small amounts of these gases creeping up, either through accidental or unplanned emissions.

"Of the four species identified, CFC-113a seems the most worrying as there is a very small but growing emission source somewhere, maybe from agricultural insecticides. We should find it and take it out of production."

Source: BBC News

The research has been published in the journal, Nature Geoscience.

Triangle UFOs Fly In The Face Of Logic.

Whatever happened to good old circular flying saucers? While accounts of them continue to show up in police reports, newspapers, YouTube, etc., it seems like these days, there are more and more sightings and videos of triangular UFOs -- V-shaped, Dorito-shaped unidentified objects.

The earliest known reports of these unusual triangles can be traced to the Dutch East Indies in the late 1890s, around 10 years prior to the Wright Brothers' first powered airplane flight in 1903. Triangle UFOs were also reported from Scotland and England in 1895.

Check out these triangular UFOs through the years.

So who or what was behind the controls of these large, silent, black objects? And who, indeed, is still piloting them today?

"One of the most unusual characteristics of these things is their ability to seemingly divide from one triangle into two, or for these triangles to come together and merge into one. There are a number of reports of that. Coupled with it is the ability for these things to morph or change shape right before the witnesses' eyes," says David Marler, pictured below, who has investigated the history of triangle UFOs for over 20 years.

Marler, author of "Triangular UFOs: An Estimate of the Situation" (Richard Dolan Press) is featured in the "Close Encounters" episodes of this week's Science Channel's "Are We Alone?" series.

What initiated Marler's research was a wave of triangle UFOs in 1990 that occurred in Belgium, where military authorities publicly confirmed the sightings and endorsed the fact that strange vehicles were operating in their skies -- extremely similar to flying triangles seen by many police officers in southern Illinois in 2000.

"The similarities were uncanny, both in the way they described the objects as well as how the objects flew," Marler told The Huffington Post. "In southern Illinois, we had neighboring municipalities and towns where law enforcement were in touch with each other, and that mirrored sightings by gendarmes in Belgium [10 years earlier] who were in radio contact and letting neighboring officers know that it was heading in their direction."

Marler notes in his book and his recent presentation at the International UFO Congress in Arizona that the Belgium and Illinois encounters were also identical to those seen by many law enforcement officials -- including this writer back in 1975 -- in Lumberton, N.C. (See illustration below).

According to Marler's research, the multiple witness, Lumberton, N.C., UFO wave was the first concentrated, well-documented event of triangular UFOs.

And then there was the famous case of the Phoenix Lights, which took place on the night of March 13, 1997.

Crowds of people reported a gigantic, silent craft moving in the skies around Phoenix before taking off silently at a blazing speed. Among the witnesses were police officers, pilots, military personnel and -- the public found out 10 years after the fact -- Arizona Gov. Fife Symington.

When news of the boomerang-shaped UFO came on television, Symington decided to get into his car and check it out for himself.

"I was expecting to see something in the distance, but was awestruck when this thing went overhead. It was moving steadily and quietly," Symington told The Huffington Post in 2011.

Ten years went by before Symington confessed his own 1997 close encounter.

"I was confronted by good citizens who were really upset with me, and I didn't realize the depth of their anger. It just really bothered my conscience, so I felt I really needed to square with the truth and that's what I did.

"I think, if you hold a high public office, that the minute you start talking about UFOs or extraterrestrials or anything of that nature, the media immediately tees off and ridicules it. I often refer to the media culture in our country as the culture of ridicule.

"So, everybody reaches for their ridicule gun first before they seriously address the issue when it comes to the matter of UFOs. If you're an elected official, you really need to be careful about what you say, because the media can just totally destroy your credibility."

Watch this video of an alleged triangle UFO over Paris, France, in 2009.

With so many reports of triangle UFOs going back to the 1950s, Marler wonders if military experimental aircraft can account for all of these sightings.

"We have worldwide reports by, not just civilians, but law enforcement and key military people in the Danish, Belgian and Chilean air forces. At some point, you have to step back and state that there's a consistency in the reports, and they're not just military. What they are, I don't know.

"The historical argument clearly demonstrates this is not something man-made."

Watch "Close Encounters" on Science Channel tonight at 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Check your local listings.

Source: HUFF POST

AMAZING UFO Filmed Over Hoboken New Jersey.

AMAZING UFO Filmed Over Hoboken New Jersey.