Showing posts with label Fukushima. Show all posts

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Mass Bird Deaths

Dead birds found on Sevier County highway

(Tennessee)

By JOSH AULT
6 News Reporter

SEYMOUR (AP/WATE) - Residents in Seymour were startled after finding dozens of small birds dead over the weekend.

The birds were reported to the sheriff's department on Sunday afternoon along Boyd Creek Highway, just outside Seymour.

A Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officer was sent out to investigate and said about 60 European starlings were found dead.

Several theories have been discussed about how the birds died.

"It's highly unlikely these birds are carrying a disease," said TWRA wildlife officer Matt Cameron. "It's an isolated case, and we haven't had any other reports of birds in that area being dead or sick. (The officer) feels something traumatic caused this rare population of birds to die."

The wildlife officer took five or six of the birds from the scene for testing.

One theory was that the birds may have been shocked by a power surge as they were found below several lines, where they are known to roost. TWRA officials say they checked with the power company, and no surges were reported Sunday.

Wildlife officials said it is not uncommon for this type of bird to hit buildings or towers and die in mass.

Harold Truitt, who lives across the street from where the birds died, says he knows exactly what killed them.

"I live in a state where there has been more than one mass die off of birds in the last few years. Also fish and other animals.
Until you live where the die off took place and actually experience this first hand, and yes, see the actual dead birds, to throw out "it was fire works" is just ignorant. PERIOD. There are many instances where there is none, I mean absolutely NO chance of it being fireworks.
I am still not 100% sure why these are taking place in these southern states, but I am not taking the generic 'it was fireworks", or "the hit a power line" type responses. Especially with the cases that is was 100% positive no fireworks went off in those areas at the time.
Oh, did fireworks kill the fish too? No, there is something odd going on, I just do not know what. If you actually read the reports of the injuries to these birds the last few years they do not add up with that stupid excuse. Do some research.
I have literally walked amongst the dead birds scattered across highways and fields in my state. I have voiced my opinion about this many times on ATS.
Good Post, S&F..very odd it's still happening." http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread913977/pg3

Dead birds fall out of sky in Seymour

SEYMOUR, Tenn. (AP) — Residents in Seymour were startled after seeing dozens of small birds dropping dead from the sky over the weekend.

The dead birds, which were estimated to be at least 50, but could total much more, appeared to be starlings and were reported to police on Sunday afternoon along Boyd Creek Highway.

The Mountain Press reported (http://bit.ly/TssUX5 ) several birds were still alive and flopping on the road when the newspaper's photographer arrived.

Sgt. Robert Stoffle, of the Sevier County Sheriff's Department, said a witness told police that the birds were seen in flight shortly before they fell to the ground. Stoffle said a state wildlife official took some of the birds from the scene for testing.

A highway department truck with a snow blade attachment scraped the birds onto the shoulder.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/science/article/Dead-birds-fall-out-of-sky-in-Seymour-4157033.php#ixzz2HpDbzLcc

"Meanwhile, a man who lives along Boyd’s Creek highway says he saw the birds get struck by a car. Harold Truitt said he was looking out at the road when he saw a large flock of birds swooping down in front of his house. “I was sitting in my den and just happened to look at the window and saw there was birds,” he said. “It looked dark there were so many swirling around out there, and a car ran right through them. “It was a white car and you could hear the birds hitting it.” The car kept going, he said, but when he went outside he saw the bodies along the road and on the ground alongside it. The rest of the flock flew away as soon as the car went through them, he said. " http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread913977/pg3

Dozens of dead Canada geese, mallard ducks dumped in Cleveland Metroparks

BENTLEYVILLE, Ohio - Dozens of dead birds were found dead in the Cleveland Metroparks Wednesday.

Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/oh_cuyahoga/dozens-of-dead-canada-geese-mallard-ducks-with-broken-necks-dumped-in-cleveland-metroparks#ixzz2HpEe61Gn

"The ones I have encountered ( red winged black birds just for the visual ) there was no doubt many of them were effected by some form of blunt force trauma, almost like they had run into something. Not to mention many of them among the dead, were not dead but severely injured, on the brink of death. My sister was concerned because she literally saw some "twitching"..what else was odd to me was the appearance of some of them having been smashed, not sure if that was from the initial impact of what has killed them or from hitting the ground so hard from the fall. Broken necks, etc. There was around 5,000 in my state alone.
As for their eyes, they were black and mostly shut. So I am not sure if the characteristics of their eyes match the starlings. I will say one thing that's for sure, it was extremely weird seeing the mass of dead birds, and how far they were scattered, yet so close together. Seeing those birds everyday in my area, then seeing them dead in such an odd way still makes me wonder." http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread913977/pg3

Dead & dying arctic birds showing up in Florida, possibly due to Hurricane Sandy

NBC NATIONAL NEWS — Arctic birds that are supposed to be up north are ending up in Southwest Florida. They're about 1,000 miles from where they should be.

They're called razorbills and they look a little like penguins.

They're migrating to Southwest Florida and dying within hours. We found out how Hurricane Sandy might be responsible months after it made landfall.

Walking down the beach near Clam Pass, Ed Selby saw a bird he'd never seen before on the shores of Southwest Florida.

"They look a little bit like penguins. This is the first time I'd ever seen the birds here. In fact, I think it's the first time anyone's seen them here," said Selby, a volunteer with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.

He found two dead razorbills - an arctic migratory seabird not native to Florida.

Over the past few weeks wildlife clinics have taken in dozens of the protected birds. Most were already dead; others were found exhausted and starving and died within hours.

DNR requests reporting of sick or dead birds after salmonella confirmed in southern Wisconsin

State wildlife officials are asking back yard birders to clean feeders and be on the lookout for sick or dead birds, after salmonella has been confirmed in a small number of pine siskins from Dane County.

MADISON – State wildlife officials are asking back yard birders to clean feeders and be on the lookout for sick or dead birds, after salmonella has been confirmed in a small number of pine siskins from Dane County. Sick goldfinches and sparrows have also been reported in Dodge and Crawford counties.

“We appreciate citizens reporting sick or dead birds around their feeders to the DNR so we can monitor the disease,” said Nancy Businga, wildlife health lab manager with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. “Salmonella is a bacterial disease that has the potential to spread to other areas so we also ask that people follow recommendations to help protect healthy birds that visit the feeder or bird bath.”

The following recommendations apply year round and statewide, though are especially important in the current area of known infection.

Clean feeders, feeding areas, and birdbaths regularly, using a 10 percent bleach solution as a disinfectant before the final rinse. If you see a sick or dead bird at a feeder, take down all feeders temporarily, clean them with the 10 percent bleach solution and wait two weeks before putting them back up.

"I'd like to ask something on that, if you've been among the bodies and seen them up close. The pics of the starlings showed blood eyes. Red... Looks like they might have run into something but it wasn't something moving itself...or barely moving. Otherwise it would be like I'd noted in another post...a little cloud of feathers and something kinda like what used to be a bird falling back down.

^^^ Did you see the same things in the birds you saw up close? Blood eyes and other signs of impact trauma but not dramatic impact? Like hitting a window..is what I thought of seeing the one close picture of the starling in the grass." http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread913977/pg3

"The ones I have encountered ( red winged black birds just for the visual ) there was no doubt many of them were effected by some form of blunt force trauma, almost like they had run into something. Not to mention many of them among the dead, were not dead but severely injured, on the brink of death. My sister was concerned because she literally saw some "twitching"..what else was odd to me was the appearance of some of them having been smashed, not sure if that was from the initial impact of what has killed them or from hitting the ground so hard from the fall. Broken necks, etc. There was around 5,000 in my state alone.
As for their eyes, they were black and mostly shut. So I am not sure if the characteristics of their eyes match the starlings. I will say one thing that's for sure, it was extremely weird seeing the mass of dead birds, and how far they were scattered, yet so close together. Seeing those birds everyday in my area, then seeing them dead in such an odd way still makes me wonder." http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread913977/pg3

Thousands of dead birds are showing up on northern Michigan’s shorelines

The rapidly changing ecology of the Great Lakes Basin, brought on in large part by non-native, invasive species, is causing devastation among Michigan’s waterfowl, especially common loons.

The common loon, a beloved, iconic bird known for its eerily lonely, two-note call and its beautiful markings, suffered devastating losses along Lake Michigan’s northern shoreline this fall. Thousands of dead birds, mainly loons, washed ashore — from the Upper Peninsula, down to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. A large percentage of the dead loons had just entered their first year of breeding maturity.

The reason for the die-off, which follows similar incidents in 2006 and 2007, isn’t fully understood. But it is suspected that it is driven by the food chain linking the loon to invasive species, specifically, the quagga mussel, the zebra mussel and the round goby.

"i cant gain a clear picture of that event from the description provided.

but another perspective.. show me these birds falling out of the sky on another day when there are no fireworks or festivities that would otherwise cause them to exhaust themselves or however else.. fall out of the sky.

ive been monitoring this for years.. and really i almost did make a prediction post.. but time was not willing

there should also be more of these stories surfacing. this could not be the only one.

edit on 2-1-2013 by 0mage because: (no reason given)

but u know what.. every year i see these mass bird deaths on new years day and the week of.. the reports always say the cause is currently unknown and the birds will be examined..

But do they ever report on what happened to the birds? i have unfortunately never gotten a final answer from the reports on these animal deaths.. neither the mass sealife deaths which are well monitored over at paradigms bend.

edit on 2-1-2013 by 0mage because: (no reason given)

have been using this site for a while.. it seemed the mass animal deaths in the ocean significantly increased literally right after the fukushima incident..paradigmsbend.blogspot.com...
source: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread913977/pg3

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Project Censored: Top 10 Underreported Stories By The Mainstream Media

(Yael Chanoff) People who get their information exclusively from mainstream media sources may be surprised at the lack of enthusiasm on the left for President Barack Obama in this crucial election. But that’s probably because they weren’t exposed to the full online furor sparked by Obama’s continuation of his predecessor’s overreaching approach to national security, such as signing the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, which allows the indefinite detention of those accused of supporting terrorism, even U.S. citizens.

We’ll never know how this year’s election would be different if the corporate media adequately covered the NDAA’s indefinite detention clause and many other recent attacks on civil liberties. What we can do is spread the word and support independent media sources that do cover these stories. That’s where Project Censored comes in.

Project Censored has been documenting inadequate media coverage of crucial stories since it began in 1967 at Sonoma State University. Each year, the group considers hundreds of news stories submitted by readers, evaluating their merits. Students search Lexis Nexis and other databases to see if the stories were underreported, and if so, the stories are fact-checked by professors and experts in relevant fields.

A panel of academics and journalists chooses the Top 25 stories and rates their significance. The project maintains a vast online database of underreported news stories that it has “validated” and publishes them in an annual book. Censored 2013: Dispatches from the Media Revolution will be released Oct. 30.

For the second year in row, Project Censored has grouped the Top 25 list into topical “clusters.” This year, categories include “Human cost of war and violence” and “Environment and health.” Project Censored Director Mickey Huff told us the idea was to show how various undercovered stories fit together into an alternative narrative, not to say that one story was more censored than another.

In May, while Project Censored was working on the list, another 2012 list was issued: the Fortune 500 list of the biggest corporations, whose influence peppers the Project Censored list in a variety of ways.

Consider this year’s top Fortune 500 company: ExxonMobil. The oil company pollutes everywhere it goes, yet most stories about its environmental devastation go underreported. Weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin (58 on the Fortune list), General Dynamics (92), and Raytheon (117) are tied into stories about U.S. prisoners in slavery conditions manufacturing parts for their weapons and the underreported war crimes in Afghanistan and Libya.

These powerful corporations work together more than most people think. In the chapter exploring the “global 1 percent,” writers Peter Philips and Kimberly Soeiro explain how a small number of well-connected people control the majority of the world’s wealth. In it, they use Censored story number 6, “Small network of corporations run the global economy,” to describe how a network of transnational corporations are deeply interconnected, with 147 of them controlling 40 percent of the global economy’s total wealth.

For example, Philips and Soeiro write that in one such company, BlackRock Inc., “The 18 members of the board of directors are connected to a significant part of the world’s core financial assets. Their decisions can change empires, destroy currencies and impoverish millions.”

Another cluster of stories, “Women and Gender, Race and Ethnicity,” notes a pattern of underreporting stories that affect a range of marginalized groups. This broad category includes only three articles, and none are listed in the top 10. The stories reveal mistreatment of Palestinian women in Israeli prisons, including being denied medical care and shackled during childbirth, and the rape and sexual assault of women soldiers in the U.S. military. The third story in the category concerns an Alabama anti-immigration bill, H.B. 56, that caused immigrants to flee Alabama in such numbers that farmers felt a dire need to “help farms fill the gap and find sufficient labor.” So the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries approached the state’s Department of Corrections about making a deal where prisoners would replace the fleeing farm workers.

But with revolutionary unrest around the world, and the rise of a mass movement that connects disparate issues together into a simple, powerful class analysis — the 99 percent versus the 1 percent paradigm popularized by Occupy Wall Street — this year’s Project Censored offers an element of hope.

It’s not easy to succeed at projects that resist corporate dominance, and when it does happen, the corporate media is sometimes reluctant to cover it. Number seven on the Top 25 list is the story of how the United Nations designated 2012 the International Year of the Cooperative, recognizing the rapid growth of co-op businesses, organizations that are part-owned by all members and whose revenue is shared equitably among members. One billion people worldwide now work in co-ops.

The Year of the Cooperative is not the only good-news story discussed by Project Censored this year. In Chapter 4, Yes! Magazine’s Sarah Van Gelder lists “12 ways the Occupy movement and other major trends have offered a foundation for a transformative future.” They include a renewed sense of “political self-respect” and fervor to organize in the United States, debunking of economic myths such as the “American dream,” and the blossoming of economic alternatives such as community land trusts, time banking and micro-energy installations.

As Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed writes in the book’s foreword, “The majority of people now hold views about Western governments and the nature of power that would have made them social pariahs 10 or 20 years ago.”

Citing polls from the corporate media, Mosaddeq writes: “The majority are now skeptical of the Iraq War; the majority want an end to U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan; the majority resent the banks and financial sector, and blame them for the financial crisis; most people are now aware of environmental issues, more than ever before, and despite denialist confusion promulgated by fossil fuel industries, the majority in the United States and Britain are deeply concerned about global warming; most people are wary of conventional party politics and disillusioned with the mainstream parliamentary system.”

“In other words,” he writes, “there has been a massive popular shift in public opinion toward a progressive critique of the current political economic system.”

And ultimately, it’s the public — not the president and not the corporations—that will determine the future. There may be hope after all. Here’s Project Censored’s Top 10 list for 2013:

1. Signs of an emerging police state

President George W. Bush is remembered largely for his role in curbing civil liberties in the name of his “war on terror.” But it’s President Obama who signed the 2012 NDAA, including its clause allowing for indefinite detention without trial for terrorism suspects. Obama promised that “my administration will interpret them to avoid the constitutional conflict” — leaving us adrift if and when the next administration chooses to interpret them otherwise. Another law of concern is the National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order that Obama issued in March 2012. That order authorizes the president, “in the event of a potential threat to the security of the United States, to take actions necessary to ensure the availability of adequate resources and production capability, including services and critical technology, for national defense requirements.” The president is to be advised on this course of action by “the National Security Council and Homeland Security Council, in conjunction with the National Economic Council.” Journalist Chris Hedges, along with co-plaintiffs including Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg, won a case challenging the NDAA’s indefinite detention clause on Sept. 1, when a federal judge blocked its enforcement, but her ruling was overturned on Oct. 3, so the clause is back.

2. Oceans in peril

Big banks aren’t the only entities that our country has deemed “too big to fail.” But our oceans won’t be getting a bailout anytime soon, and their collapse could compromise life itself. In a haunting article highlighted by Project Censored, Mother Jones reporter Julia Whitty paints a tenuous seascape — overfished, acidified, warming — and describes how the destruction of the ocean’s complex ecosystems jeopardizes the entire planet, not just the 70 percent that is water. Whitty compares ocean acidification, caused by global warming, to acidification that was one of the causes of the “Great Dying,” a mass extinction 252 million years ago. Life on Earth took 30 million years to recover. In a more hopeful story, a study of 14 protected and 18 non-protected ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea showed dangerous levels of biomass depletion. But it also showed that the marine reserves were well-enforced, with five to 10 times larger fish populations than in unprotected areas. This encourages establishment and maintenance of more reserves.

3. U.S. deaths from Fukushima

A plume of toxic fallout floated to the U.S. after Japan’s tragic Fukushima nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found radiation levels in air, water and milk that were hundreds of times higher than normal across the United States. One month later, the EPA announced that radiation levels had declined, and they would cease testing. But after making a Freedom of Information Act request, journalist Lucas Hixson published emails revealing that on March 24, 2011, the task of collecting nuclear data had been handed off from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the Nuclear Energy Institute, a nuclear industry lobbying group. And in one study that got little attention, scientists Joseph Mangano and Jeanette Sherman found that in the period following the Fukushima meltdowns, 14,000 more deaths than average were reported in the U.S., mostly among infants. Later, Mangono and Sherman updated the number to 22,000.

4. FBI agents responsible for terrorist plots

We know that FBI agents go into communities such as mosques, both undercover and in the guise of building relationships, quietly gathering information about individuals. This is part of an approach to finding what the FBI now considers the most likely kind of terrorists, “lone wolves.” Its strategy: “seeking to identify those disgruntled few who might participate in a plot given the means and the opportunity. And then, in case after case, the government provides the plot, the means, and the opportunity,” writes Mother Jones journalist Trevor Aaronsen. The publication, along with the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California-Berkeley, examined the results of this strategy, 508 cases classified as terrorism-related that have come before the U.S. Department of Justice since the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001. In 243 of these cases, an informant was involved; in 49 cases, an informant actually led the plot. And “with three exceptions, all of the high-profile domestic terror plots of the last decade were actually FBI stings.”

5. Federal Reserve loaned trillions to major banks

The Federal Reserve, the U.S.’s quasi-private central bank, was audited for the first time in its history this year. The audit report states, “From late 2007 through mid-2010, Reserve Banks provided more than a trillion dollars … in emergency loans to the financial sector to address strains in credit markets and to avert failures of individual institutions believed to be a threat to the stability of the financial system.” These loans had significantly less interest and fewer conditions than the high-profile TARP bailouts, and were rife with conflicts of interest. Some examples: the CEO of JP Morgan Chase served as a board member of the New York Federal Reserve at the same time that his bank received more than $390 billion in financial assistance from the Fed. William Dudley, who is now the New York Federal Reserve president, was granted a conflict of interest waiver to let him keep investments in AIG and General Electric at the same time the companies were given bailout funds. The audit was restricted to Federal Reserve lending during the financial crisis. On July 25, 2012, a bill to audit the Fed again, with fewer limitations, authored by Rep. Ron Paul, passed the House of Representatives. H.R. 459 was expected to die in the Senate, but the movement behind Paul and his calls to hold the Fed accountable, or abolish it altogether, seem to be growing.

6. Small network of corporations run the global economy

Reporting on a study by researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute in Zurich didn’t make the rounds nearly enough, according to Censored 2013. They found that, of 43,060 transnational companies, 147 control 40 percent of total global wealth. The researchers also built a model visually demonstrating how the connections between companies — what it calls the “super entity” — works. Some have criticized the study, saying control of assets doesn’t equate to ownership. True, but as we clearly saw in the 2008 financial collapse, corporations are capable of mismanaging assets in their control to the detriment of their actual owners. And a largely unregulated super entity like this is vulnerable to global collapse.

7. The International Year of Cooperative

Can something really be censored when it’s straight from the United Nations? According to Project Censored evaluators, the corporate media underreported the U.N. declaring 2012 to be the International Year of the Cooperative, based on the co-op business model’s stunning growth. The U.N. found that, in 2012, 1 billion people worldwide are co-op member-owners, or one in five adults over age 15. The largest is Spain’s Mondragon Corporation, with more than 80,000 member-owners. The U.N. predicts that by 2025, worker-owned co-ops will be the world’s fastest growing business model. Worker-owned cooperatives provide for equitable distribution of wealth, genuine connection to the workplace, and, just maybe, a brighter future for our planet.

8. NATO war crimes in Libya

In January 2012, the BBC “revealed” how British Special Forces agents joined and “blended in” with rebels in Libya to help topple dictator Muammar Gadaffi, a story that alternative media sources had reported a year earlier. NATO admits to bombing a pipe factory in the Libyan city of Brega that was key to the water supply system that brought tap water to 70 percent of Libyans, saying that Gadaffi was storing weapons in the factory. In Censored 2013, writer James F. Tracy makes the point that historical relations between the U.S. and Libya were left out of mainstream news coverage of the NATO campaign; “background knowledge and historical context confirming Al-Qaeda and Western involvement in the destabilization of the Gadaffi regime are also essential for making sense of corporate news narratives depicting the Libyan operation as a popular ‘uprising.’”

9. Prison slavery in the U.S.

On its website, the UNICOR manufacturing corporation proudly proclaims that its products are “made in America.” That’s true, but they’re made in places in the U.S. where labor laws don’t apply, with workers often paid just 23 cents an hour to be exposed to toxic materials with no legal recourse. These places are U.S. prisons. Slavery conditions in prisons aren’t exactly news. It’s literally written into the Constitution; the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, outlaws “slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” But the articles highlighted by Project Censored this year reveal the current state of prison slavery industries, and its ties to war. The majority of products manufactured by inmates are contracted to the Department of Defense. Inmates make complex parts for missile systems, battleship anti-aircraft guns and landmine sweepers, as well as night-vision goggles, body army and camouflage uniforms. Of course, this is happening in the context of record high imprisonment in the U.S., where grossly disproportionate numbers of African Americans and Latinos are imprisoned, and can’t vote even after they’re freed. As psychologist Elliot D. Cohen puts it in this year’s book: “This system of slavery, like that which existed in this country before the Civil War, is also racist, as more than 60 percent of U.S. prisoners are people of color.”

10. H.R. 347 criminalizes protest

H.R. 347, sometimes called the “criminalizing protest” or “anti-Occupy” bill, made some headlines. But concerned lawyers and other citizens worry that it could have disastrous effects for the First Amendment right to protest. Officially called the Federal Restricted Grounds Improvement Act, the law makes it a felony to “knowingly” enter a zone restricted under the law, or engage in “disorderly or disruptive” conduct in or near the zones. The restricted zones include anywhere the Secret Service may be — places such as the White House, areas hosting events deemed “National Special Security Events,” or anywhere visited by the president, vice president and their immediate families; former presidents, vice presidents and certain family members; certain foreign dignitaries; major presidential and vice presidential candidates (within 120 days of an election); and other individuals as designated by a presidential executive order. These people could be anywhere, and NSSEs have notoriously included the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, Super Bowls and the Academy Awards. So far, it seems the only time H.R. 347 has kicked in is with George Clooney’s high-profile arrest outside the Sudanese embassy. Clooney ultimately was not detained without trial — information that would be almost impossible to censor — but what about the rest of us who exist outside of the mainstream media’s spotlight?

THERE IS SOOOO MUCH MORE AT THIS WEBSITE THAT YOU MUST CHECK IT OUT!!!

HERE IS THE SITE URL...http://govtslaves.info/project-censored-top-10-underreported-stories-by-the-mainstream-media/

Thursday, February 23, 2012

UPDATE: 2-23-2012 - Strange Metal Boxes On Oregon Coast.. Is This Real Or A Hoax?

UPDATE: 2-23-2012

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Strange Metal Boxes, UFOs Oregon Coast - Update

Oregon Metal Boxes an Unfortunate Hoax, (Follow Up)

Dave Masko and huliq.com perpetrate hoax on citizens of Oregon Coast.
(Florence, Oregon) – A rash of outrageous and hilariously odd stories about beach junk on the central Oregon coast turned a slightly dark corner last week when the claims about “mysterious metal boxes,” caused such a stir on the Net that various entities and individuals were forced to waste resources, man hours and money to either look for these objects or answer an irritatingly large tsunami of questions from over-excited media outlets. Still even less reputable websites engaged in a disturbing display of spreading unfounded claims, as some further embellished the original tale with even more preposterous yarns about a cover up, men in black on the beaches, secret ops helicopters and much more.

It could've been the latest bad movie from the Sy-Fy network, but instead it was all spawned by area resident Dave Masko on a citizen journalism site called Huliq.com, Citizen journalism sites are not actual news outlets but websites where anyone can post an article and claim it be a news item.

Masko himself has a sketchy reputation for creating outlandish articles, often quite untrue, and is called a “serial fabricator” by central coast residents.

The “mysterious metal boxes” turned out to be made of wood, and were merely parts of a float system for a dock that had been destroyed upstream in a recent flood.

The series of hoaxes all began February 9 as Huliq contributor Masko posted a story about “mysterious metal boxes” in the Florence area and just south of Yachats, showing pictures of the debris, and making claims about strange auras and noises emanating from them, and asserting they had something to do with alleged UFO sightings in the area.

Almost immediately, a host of other websites picked up the story, usually with varying degrees of skepticism, and the story went viral. Readers seemed in awe of the subject, which to the UFO nutjob community seemed to provide proof of the paranormal.

Almost none of these re-postings can be found now, replaced by rather angry and irritated debunkings of the surreal series of stories.

Quickly, a host of more traditional media from towns as far away as Boston and Miami began calling around the Oregon coast to find out more. A handful of people, including Earthfiles.com, contacted numerous state agencies seeking more information on the mystery boxes. Oregon Coast Beach Connection and other media contacted CoastWatch – an organization of volunteers that keep on an eye on beach conditions and human impact.

This is where it began to be problematic. Bill Hanshumaker, a spokesman for the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, was quoted in Masko's original article as saying very simply he did not know what the objects were. This created a barrage of goofy calls to Hanshumaker from curious media – the only actual person quoted there. He complained of not being able to get work done and had to stop answering his phone. Hanshumaker said he received so many calls and emails he completely lost count.

Then, man hours were wasted by looking for chunks of beach debris, forced to do so by an unreasonably pushy and suspicious demographic. Luckily, no tax dollars were wasted.

“Actually, I did not send anyone but volunteers out looking for the boxes reported at Brays Point,” Hanshumaker said. “However I spoke with someone from the state parks, whose job it is to be out on the beaches anyways. Nobody wants to waste tax payers dollars, but if I hadn't looked into it, some people would declare governmental coverup.”

At the Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation, spokesman Chris Havel said the agency only spent a few extra hours on this incident. Much of their work entails being out on the beaches anyway. They were not hounded by media as Hanshumaker was.

A variety of other people hit the beaches, from residents, members of Coastwatch to various paranormal investigators, including those from the high profile Ground Zero Radio show.

No one found a thing – at least at first. Eventually some state workers found a box or two and made the determination.

Skepticism mounted, and the public posted comments on the websites providing the stories, displaying mostly dismay at the outrageous claims, with the overwhelming reaction being “this was a hoax.”

Media outlets scrambled to contact Mr. Masko about the growing informational scandal. He did not even respond to like-thinking paranormal investigators. One member of the Ground Zero-associated crew asked Oregon Coast Beach Connection if Masko “was for real,” complaining he had refused to meet with them or talk to them.

This added to the skepticism and finally most of the re-posts of Masko's story were removed.

Masko half responded to Oregon Coast Beach Connection questions about how he felt about the hoax label and other inquiries about his finds. He deferred to his latest article on the subject, which only addressed the explanation of the boxes' origin with more questions like “what of the other boxes on the west coast?”

Addressing the idea of it being a hoax, Masko allegedly quotes individuals with nebulous sentiments like “What is a hoax?” and then proceeds to decry the scientific method over the hazy belief system of the UFO enthusiast. (Hey wait a minute - isn't that also what what creationists do to science?)

In the end, Masko only dodged these questions about the credibility of his story.

Still, Havel said there was a bit of silver lining to this hoax.

“If curiosity brings a few more people out of their winter hibernation to enjoy the beach and take a walk, that's a good thing,” Havel said.

Masko has been known to either fabricate stories or misinterpret quotes from random people on the street and then post them in high profile sites on the Internet. He received from major rebukes from Oregon film office officials and those connected with the movie “Twilight” for having erroneously claimed a Twilight sequel was being filmed on the Oregon coast...

After the 2011 tsunami alert on the Oregon coast, Masko upset a host of businesses and officials by falsely claiming more tsunami alerts had hit Newport, and flirted with legal action over false claims that local officials had warned about Japanese radiation affecting Newport gardens, dogs and Florence beaches, as well as flagrantly misquoted OSU scientists on the subject.

Masko continues to write about the boxes subject, even with the public ridicule, lack of evidence, and in spite of firm explanations about their true origin.

SOURCE: EducatingHumanity
UPDATE: 2-21-2012

UFO sighting beliefs counter today's science while new metal box theory floated

By Dave Masko on 2012-02-18

UFO sighting beliefs counter today’s science while new metal box theory floated

BRAYS POINT, Ore. – Marine scientists have looked under the hood of mysterious metal boxes -- that started appearing along West Coast beaches two weeks ago – and now have a scientific theory.

Mention strange metal boxes appearing along beaches here at Bray’s Point and other locations up and down the West Coast and it conjures up all sorts of images for people; with one theory now being floated about how the boxes got here. According to William Hanshumaker, a Ph.D. public marine education specialist at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in nearby Newport, the theory now – after investigating these strange metal boxes for the past two weeks – is “the boxes on the beach are merely floats that were originally built to support docks.” While Doctor Hanshumaker and other local marine science experts stated their conclusion Feb. 17 that – after reviewing photos, interviews and actually looking at some of the strange metal boxes along beaches near Bray’s Point – that they believe at least some of these “boxes” are possibly parts of docks. In turn, Doctor Hanshumaker noted in reply to a Huliq media query that “after a recent flooding event, some docks were destroyed and their floats drifted downriver and subsequently deposited on the beach. A colleague from a local state agency had the opportunity to examine one and confirmed this explanation.” At the same time, those locals -- who first mentioned seeing “these mysterious metal boxes” in previous Huliq reports -- say Doctor Hanshumaker’s scientific theory may hold water for him and other marine scientists who study West Coast beach debris, but “what about the other boxes that can't easily be explained away?”

Still no firm answer on all boxes

In turn, there have been reports from locals and visitors -- to these Oregon and other West Coast beaches over the past two weeks -- pointing to "various types of boxes” that are are both metal and also look “box shape” that are possibly dock floats from Japan’s earthquake last March.

It was more than 11 months ago that Tsunami waves raced across 5,000 miles of the Pacific to slam the West Coast with massive waves. Did these waves also bring these "boxes" or "docks" from Japan? Who knows, say experts. Also, there's no real science that can explain what's "dropped" on West Coast beaches at any given time. And, with many of these coastal beaches -- such as Bray's Point on the very edge of the West Coast -- in remote areas, who knows but the locals who live there what's going down.

“At the end of the day, the boxes we're discussing today, February 18, are from two weeks ago are now mostly gone. People are simply taking them away for whatever reasons,” explained Bray’s Point resident Errol during a Huliq phone interview Feb. 18.

What’s unknown is frightening

It seems that this year, 2012, has already become a strange time when people are questioning hard science when it comes to everything from the origins of UFO sightings to “strange metal boxes,” to the ancient Mayans having this calendar that predicts the end of the world on Dec. 21, 2012.

In turn, the famed playwright and philosopher Andre Gregory explained in his screenplay for the film “My Dinner With Andre,” that he’s always been suspicious of scientists who attempt to put everything unknown on this Earth into “nice tidy boxes.”

Gregory says this questioning of science as not being exact when it comes to such things as theories about UFOs comes from “a sort of self-satisfied elitist paranoia” in science today, “with a feeling of ‘them’ and ‘us’ that is very unsettling.”

Gregory, who is a self-proclaimed UFO believer, goes on to state that “people can build up a kind of network of beliefs founded on signs from anywhere that proves without any question that they’re absolutely right about everything. And you know, you sit around and have dinner in some of these places, and everybody is talking with great knowledge about Atlantis or whatever it is, and you know, you feel very strange if you don’t happen to have all this secret information.”

The philosopher also explains, “You then see all these significant coincidences in everything that happens.” The thing is, I think it’s the exaggerated worship of science that has led us into this situation. I mean, science has been help up to us as a magical force that would somehow solve everything. So that is really what has let to this very strong, deep reaction against science that we’re seeing now.”

Fearing such things as metal boxes in our world

Jeff Wise, the author of “Extreme Fear: The Science of Your Mind in Danger,” writes in Time magazine last month that “there are plenty of things to be afraid of – so choose carefully.”

Wise writes in this Time magazine report that in 2012 “identifying the most pressing threats turns out to be unexpectedly difficult. Psychologists say we innately misjudge risk, often becoming instinctively fixated on perceived threats that aren’t really hazardous while overlooking real dangers because we don’t set our subconscious alarm bells.”

For example, Wise writes that “people fear cell-phone radiation because it’s a relatively new technology and the word ‘radiation’ adds to the aura of invisible malevolence,” along the same lines as why ufologists think breakthroughs in understanding alien life has been so slow in coming to mankind.

Mention “strange metal boxes” on the beach, and “people sort of shut down and call you a UFO nut. They need answers right now, and they won’t give an inch until they either try and understand or simply dismiss what you’re saying because ‘UFO’ is part of it,” added Errol when expressing her personal angst over being shot as the messenger for what other many in society view as real or not real.

Strange Metal Boxes Appear Along West Coast

Friday, February 10, 2012

BRAY’S POINT, Ore. – They can’t be moved; even when yanked by a four-wheel drive truck pulling on heavy chains tied around these humming metal boxes that are still appearing as of Feb. 8 up and down West Coast beaches.

OK, we have a new mystery to deal with.

It seems retirees in the lazy coastal town of Stonefield Beach, Oregon have discovered some strange goings on in their community.

After several folks reported seeing UFOs, odd metal boxes began to show up in the surf.

Witnesses say the boxes are a robust 5′X5′X20″, “not movable” (whatever that means) and are (Now get this!) giving off a high pitched “wail”. Hmmm, we can’t seem to get rid of this sound thing, can we?

Speculation ranges from them being alien in origin to washed up radioactive debris from the Japanese disaster. I even found one theory that says the boxes are part of an obscure art exhibit.

Source: GlobalRumblings

UFO inspired metal boxes still vex experts while someone is taking the boxes away

By Dave Masko on 2012-02-15

FLORENCE, Ore. – There are many theories about strange metal boxes that started appearing along Oregon and West Coast beaches last week; while Feb. 15 brings new but vague answers.

...The boxes first surfaced as a story on Huliq last week after local UFO fans relating recent sightings at nearby Stonefield Beach. These UFO fans then pointed to “strange metal boxes” that “were revealed” after a recent UFO sightings. They said the boxes appeared “out of the blue,” while other locals simply said the boxes have the makings for yet more UFO lore; with people either believing or not believing. However, the metal boxes by themselves are something that is very real. So real, in fact, that William Hanshumaker, a Ph.D in marine education, and a member of the “Oregon Sea Grant Faculty” at the nearby Hatfield Marine Science Center, in Newport, has been investigating the “boxes” for the past week.

...there is no consensus as to “what” the boxes are.

Sure, there’s been speculation that these “strange metal boxes” are possible docking pieces from oyster farms over in Japan -- that broke apart after the March 2011 earthquake and Tsunami that also slammed West Coast beaches, but how could something as huge as these boxes travel almost 5,000 miles across the Pacific from Japan to Oregon coastal beaches?
Moreover, Doctor Hanshumaker noted that “the boxes would have barnacles underneath” if they were floating out in the Pacific.

However, seven boxes were examined at local beaches near Florence on Feb. 15, and they’re clean all around with no barnacles but a sort of “membrane” film that can’t be scraped off that covers each of the remaining boxes.

In turn, locals at nearby Stonefield Beach and Bray’s Point – who first noticed the boxes after a late evening UFO sighting Feb. 5 – “with boxes up and down the beach on the morning of Feb. 6,” said a Bray’s Point local named Errol.

...the Oregon, Washington and California state police were also contacted, and each department reported no actions being taken to investigate the boxes...

Someone is taking the boxes

At the same time, boxes were seen being moved by a number of “white trucks” with heavy chains and upwards of four to six people seen pushing and then loading these strange metal boxes into the white trucks.

One local Florence couple – who stopped to exam one metal box – said in a Feb. 15 Huliq interview that “it sure looks unusual.”

Also, the couple said they were "drawn to the box," and that "it felt warm, like nothing we've ever felt before."

People seeing and touching the boxes

“Feel me, touch me, see me,” seems like something these boxes “might be saying to us,” quipped local UFO “watcher” Errol when taking more than 100 images of a group of these metal boxes near his Bray’s Point beach home Feb. 15. “I want to document this before someone runs off with our three boxes down the beach there,” he added with a vividly inventive mind that seemed both self-confident and worried....

Lilly Moll’s theory about the boxes

“Something happened here a lot time ago. It was something that altered my view of who I was on this Earth,” explained Moll while sitting on one of these metal boxes near her beach home at Bray’s Point.

Moll, who has this striking exotic quality that Errol say people are attracted to since “she must be in her nineties, and not weigh more than 80 or 90 pounds but she radiates a kind of beauty that’s can’t be explained, but felt deep inside your heart and mind.”

In turn, Moll reveals in a quite enigmatic, cipher quality that “the boxes are not for us to understand. They’re here for now and maybe gone tomorrow. That’s all.”

Source: Huliq

Mayan prophecy shared with metal box at 42nd annual Yachats art fair

By Dave Masko on 2012-02-17

YACHATS, Ore. – A forthcoming art show in this eclectic coastal town includes an artist’s plan to display a metal box he unearthed as part of a Mayan prophecy art presentation.

Local artist Leo D’Alessandro is planning for the “42nd Annual Original Yachats Arts & Crafts Fair” in a big way. “Since the Mayan prophecy for this year of 2012 is expected to bring the dawn of a new era – a year of transformation for our planet – what better way for me to share my visions of the Mayans than with the metal box I salvaged from our beach.” In turn, D’Alessandro, a young, aggressive and even pushy artist -- who seems to be neutral in nothing – as he shares what’s been dubbed as “beach sculptured” art works, is excited about the upcoming festival. “My art is original woodwork and mixed media. I know the mention of having one of these mysterious boxes involved is exciting. It’s just right, I feel, to compliment my Mayan theme for the work I present this year.” Since D’Alessandro relies on hand-made flyers – that he passed out at the Yachats Commons Feb. 17 during a Huliq interview – there’s no big buzz as of yet for what this artist who says his art is based on “personified chaotic disorder.”

...the mystery of what happened to the metal boxes over the past week still lingers as locals report seeing “people in white trucks” collecting the boxes and taking them off the beaches. For instance, D’Allessandro said “it’s a real find. I can’t open it. The box is sealed all around, and there’s a bright and crystal film over it.” At the same time, D’Allessandro said “I don’t want to say much now until the art show.”

...the Yachats Chamber of Commerce “Original Arts & Crafts Fair” is a huge local event that attracts approximately five to six thousand people, nearly equaling this hamlet’s local population on Saturday and Sunday, March 17-18....

...“You said it best,” quipped D’Alessandro to this reporter, “when you said the boxes are a metaphor for something else in our society where people fear everything. And, most especially they fear what they don’t know or understand. The box represents their fears, as you said in one of your stories.”

For D’Alessandro, whose laughter stopped – as though he’d turned a valve in his chest – when another artist mentioned that “you should not have taken that box from the beach; his reply was simply “adrenaline.”

“Lifting that box with my family and friends has a full of anticipatory adrenaline. Just being with it, and then having it felt like someone once said of an ‘electric sparkle inside.’”

Source: Huliq

Here's an update on the "strange metal boxes washed up on Oregon beach"

Originally posted by gardCanada

after reading it a bit I found this interesting (enough t think about going down there).

"...In turn, these boxes are “not moveable,” and they are solid and metallic and seem to have this keening wail coming from both the boxes and the atmosphere around them,” adds Errol who’s been called in to “see what’s up” by locals thinking it “has something to do with UFOs” quipped a local senior named Doris who said she heard “a miaowing wail come from the boxes Sunday evening...”

"....It’s as if an alarm went off, when a “high, shrill, piercing, frightening ring caught our attention Sunday evening,” explained Doris, a local senior whose retired and lives nearby Stonefield Beach. “I know crazy things happen over at Stonefield, but when you walk down and see that metal box sort of glowing in the surf it gets your attention real quick.”

At the same time, Doris said this area around Stonefield Beach is a very “quiet place,” where “nothing but seagulls and the Pacific Ocean waves to break the quiet.”

"While these “metal boxes” buried up and down the Oregon coast are real to the touch and sight, a local professor of psychology – whose attempted to explain away the “strange goings on at both Bray’s Point and here at Stonefield Beach,” thinks the many “of these remote living residents who claim to see UFOs at night are simply not using the tool between their ears to figure this stuff out.”

Now thats cool and puzzling.

----------------------------------------------------------------

...Have they tried using a blowtorch yet?

Yes, because there are so many explanations for sealed metal boxes full of wailing sounds showing up on a civilian shore.

Sometimes, people declare believers nuts because they themselves don't want to admit that there is a very potent life-form from beyond this world not only walking among us, but also impervious to our means of control. It would mean, "Holy crap, I'm wrong and we don't know WHAT this is!"

Source: AboveTopSecret