A Canadian man is suing Microsoft, Wal-Mart and others for a variety of reasons including alleged brainwave control, satanic rituals and witchcraft!

The case is being brought by Jerry Rose of Vancouver Island who is demanding $2 billion in damages. The Calgary Herald reports that Rose claims amongst other things to have been subject to:

"invasive brain computer interface technology, research, experiments, field studies and surgery"

It's certainly true that companies such as those named have huge, powerful marketing departments - but mind control?

The defendants wanted the case dismissed with Microsoft describing the claims as "nothing short of bizarre". However Justice Fraser Wilson has decided that the trial should go ahead

A TV crew in Canada has reported finding a baby Ogopogo. Although the claim was intended to be "tongue-in-cheek", many a true word... One way or another the programme makers appear to have discovered an interesting biological specimen.

The Ogopogo - also known as the Canadian Nessie - is a creature believed to live in British Columbia's Okanagan Lake. The first documented sightings date back to the late 19th century. According to witness reports it appears to be some form of giant sea serpent.

The newly discovered specimen is no monster but it is a mystery. According to Bill Steciuk who helped organise the shooting for the History Channel:

"It was all curled up. The features were really hard to see. You could see a little head tucked in and a straight tail with no fins."

Stecuik also added:

"I couldn't recognize it. Nor could anyone else. Maybe a new species has been found."

Local Ogopogo-ologist Arlene Gaal is unconvinced. According to her:

"It looked to me like a decomposing ling cod"

We should know more in February when the results of DNA testing are expected to be released.

If you're interested in weird and unusual stuff then you'll know about the Bermuda Triangle. But how about the Taiwan Triangle?

The NZ Herald reports that the recent unexplained crash of a fighter jet over the Taiwan Strait has people wondering if the area might be as fearsome as its better known Bermuda counterpart. The area around the Penghu Islands - a popular tourist resort - has seen more than its fair share of aircraft disasters. Over the last 20 years a minimum of five fighter jets, three commercial planes and one helicopter have come down in the region. Over the last 40 years the death toll for the region numbers some 300.

The local authorities are keen to avoid any fear of flying damaging the local tourism industry and argue that the area simply has a very high volume of air traffic, so "the chances of crashes are proportionally higher".

The Famagusta Gazette reports that officials from the Cyprus government are hunting for a strange sea creature said to have been spotted in the waters of the Kouris Dam. The creature, which was first seen three years ago, has been described as a Cypriot version of the Loch Ness Monster.

Officials from the Cyprus Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Affairs are searching dam trying to find the mysterious creature. As of yet they've had no success - the Kouris Creature seems as shy as our own Nessie. Perhaps that's a good thing - the officials plan to try and coax it out using raw meat and live hens as bait. The idea of a meat eating giant serpent on the loose is an unpleasant one.

Some people believe that the sightings may be related to reports of a crocodile having been dumped into the waters.

We all know that cats' eyes glow in the dark, but what about their skin? Haven't you always wanted a cat that glowed softly so that you could always find it at night?

No, nor have I - but it seems genetic engineers like the idea. MSNBC reports that US scientists have created a cat that glows in the dark. The Frankenfeline, Mr. Green Genes, was cloned at the Audubon Nature Institute, New Orleans, and was displayed last week on the Today programme. A modified gene inserted during his creation means that his skin is phosphorescent and glows under ultraviolet (UV) light. So strictly speaking he doesn't glow in the dark, you'd need a "black light" torch to find him at night.

My first reaction to the idea of a phosphorescent cat was "Why?", however there is a serious point to this. The phosphorescence wasn't the objective of the experiment, simply an easy way to check that it had worked. Betsy Dresser, senior vice president for the Audobon Institute, said:

"We wanted to know for sure that we could insert this gene into a cell and have it multiply. If nothing glows, we wouldn’t know if the gene was really inserted. So, because it glows, we know we inserted the gene and were successful with that technique."

The idea is that the genetic engineering techniques being explored at the Institute might one day be used to help save endangered species or even help cure disease in humans.

One worrying thing is that Mr Green Genes isn't sterile. Dresser commented "We’ll breed him and we’ll see if his kids glow, too!" Given that the cat's being trotted round TV studios I worry about the risk of him running off and spreading his modified genes in the wild. I've nothing against genetic experimentation in the lab but it really mustn't be allowed to escape into the wild in the way that GM food has done; it's a genie that can never be put back in the bottle.

One of the problems facing any science fiction story or SETI style project is communication between humanity and an alien race. Even assuming the aliens use symbol-based communication, how do we learn their language when we have no cultural historical or cultural reference points? Most fiction gets round this problem by assuming some sort of Star Trek style "Universal Translator".

Such an interplanetary Rosetta Stone is way beyond our current technology however it might have just come one small step closer to reality.

The Telegraph reports that Dr John Elliott of Leeds Metropolitan University is working on a computer program to help analyse alien messages and work out their language. Elliot's theory is that any language must have a structure and it should be possible to decode some of that structure - for instance identifying verbs and adjectival phrases - even if we don't know the meaning of the "words". To assist in this pattern recognition Elliot is analysing the syntax of dozens of different human languages.

Elliot also suggests that we might be able to deduce something about the aliens' intelligence level from the complexity of their language. Personally I think we just need look at whether or not they know how to use apostrophes correctly.

New evidence - if any were needed - that strangeness is often a lot closer than we think. Associated Press reports that humble, everyday Scotch Tape you buy in the stores can emit X-Rays!

The discovery was made by researchers at the University of California, LA, whilst peeling Scotch tape in a vacuum. The team were following up older reports from Russia in 1953 that peeling sticky tape could produce X-rays. The researchers were sceptical about the Russian reports, however they found to their surprise that X-rays were indeed emitted when Scotch tape was peeled in a vacuum. The high energy pulses were sufficient to allow the researchers to take Xray photos of their fingers.

The mechanism behind this discovery - called triboluminescence - is unclear and has a number of scientists puzzled. One theory is that splitting a crystal separates out positive and negative charges that then neutralise each other and release energy as light or - in this case - X-rays. However this theory fails to explain why quite so much energy is released, especially given the nature of the adhesive on the tape.

The researchers are keen to avoid worrying people about using sticky tape and stress that their experiments require the tape to be peeled in a vacuum. Team member Juan Escobar said: "We don't want to scare people from using Scotch tape in everyday life".

Disco music from the 1970s is rather looked down upon today, however the BBC reports that it could help to save lives. Specifically the 1977 Bee Gees' song Stayin' Alive could significantly improve the chances of a heart attack victim doing just that.

Unfortunately the music of the brothers Gibb doesn't have any magical powers in itself, but it could help anyone performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the patient. The song has 103 beats per minute (BPM) - very close to the recommended BPM of 100 for CPR. Researchers from the by the University of Illinois College of Medicine found that students practising CPR whilst listening to Stayin' Alive averaged a CPR rate of 109 BPM. Five weeks later they practised without music but mentally listening to the song. This time the result was 113 BPM - but apparently too fast is better than too slow.

That's what you call a pumping beat.

We already know that zombies support Barack Obama for president, now it appears that aliens might also be showing an interest in him.

New video footage released on YouTube shows several UFOs flying above an Obama rally in Philidelphia. The UFOs were seen by several people, so they aren't just lens flare or other camera artefacts.

Of course a UFO isn't necessarily an alien spaceship. Other suggested explanations for these sightings include laser reflections, weather balloons and surveillance drones.

Or maybe they really were aliens, but they're not interested in politics - just big Bruce Springsteen fans!

Are you planning a camping trip in the near future? Perhaps when you buy all the new gear you should also think of investing in some exorcism equipment. The West Sussex County Times on the case of a young man from Horsham, South England, who went on a camping trip - only to have a forest poltergeist return the visit!

Eighteen year old Stephen Foster and a friend spent the night camping in St Leonard's Forest, near St John the Evangelist Church. During the night they witnessed strange sounds and visions and felt a ghostly presence trying to enter their tent.

Unfortunately for Stephen the experience didn't end at dawn. He returned home expecting to be safe, only to find that the ghost - apparently some form of poltergeist - had followed him. Since then the house has been subject to unexplained visions and slamming doors. Even Stephen's mum Caroline, who describes herself as "more sceptical about these things", is convinced and has called in the Sussex Paranormal Research Group.

Many researchers believe that poltergeist activity is not the result of any form of ghost but of latent psi powers of the focus. If that's the case then it's possible that Stephen's paranormal abilities were awakened by a night of fright and that the manifestations in the Foster home come not from an external entity but from his subonscious.

Massachusetts Local News reports that the Virgin Mary has been seen in Springfield, Mass.

The apparition was seen in the window of a vacant office in Mercy Medical Center office on Stafford Street. As many as 300 people at a time crowded to view the apparition, many chanting, singing or even crying.

One witness said she found it comforting that the Virgin Mary should appear at a time of such upheaval in the US. A cynic might say that such times make people more prone to clutch at straws and give religious interpretations to a random pattern of light and shade.

People have believed for centuries that the power of the human mind can have an effect on physical well-being. Now new - and controversial - research seems to back this up in the case of cancer.

The new research, published in BioMed Central, studied "the relationship between life events, psychological distress and Breast Cancer (BC) among young women." The researchers found that young women who suffered traumatic negative emotional events were more at risk of developing breast cancer later in life than those who maintained a happy, optimistic attitude.

This conclusion does, however, come with a major health warning of its own: the women were questioned about their early emotional state after their diagnosis. It's possible that being diagnosed as having cancer may have affected their view of their past emotional state, something that's hard to measure objectively at the best of times.

So this research is inconclusive, however it's yet more evidence that the possible link between mind and body is at least interesting enough to deserve further study.

Cryptozoologists have gone on many long and difficult expeditions to seek out new life, new species. Maybe they could have saved some time by simply going onto an online auction site such as eBay!

The BBC reports that fossil bought on eBay has turned out to be a previously unknown species. The fossilised insect, which had been preserved in amber, was bought by Dr Richard Harrington for just £20. After examination by experts the insect was confirmed as being a new species - now, of course, probably extinct.

OK, so it’s just an aphid, it’s hardly Bigfoot. Yet even a bug can give you a place in history - the new species has been named Mindarus harringtoni.

Topic Tag: Cryptozoology

Scientists from the Sebangau Felid Project have captured pictures of a rare Clouded Leopard in Borneo’s Sebangu National Park, Central Kalimantan

The Clouded Leopard (Neofelis diardi) was only identified as a new species in 2007 following DNA testing. This is the first time that this particular big cat has been sighted in this location. Professor David Macdonald from the Oxford University Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) said:

“We are very excited by this evidence that they occur at Sebangau - a great deal remains to be discovered about these beautiful felids, which are a flagship for conservation in South-East Asia”

Estimates put the number of Clouded leopards as low as 10,000.

The Sebangu National Park is also home to other rare species including Bornean orangutans and Bornean southern gibbons. These are all at risk as the Park, one of the largest deep peat-swamp forests in the world, is very susceptible to forest fires and also at risk from illegal logging.

Topic Tag: Cryptozoology

Scientists in Mexico have discovered what local legend says is the portal to the Mayan Underworld, Xibalba, on the Yucatan peninsula.

Scuba divers have discovered a cluster of submerged temples in underground caves, along with human bones. The maze of caverns and tunnels was believed by the ancient Mayans to be the entrance the the underworld for the souls of the dead. Well, one of the entrances - many local tribes claimed their own cave system as the primary entrance to Xibalba.

Xibalba means “Place of fear” and was believed to be ruled by the spirits of disease and death, “the Lords of Xibalba”. Which makes me wonder whether the presence of holy sites was to keep people out - or spirits in.

Scientists from the Smithsonian Institution have discovered a brand new species of bird.

The olive-backed forest robin is around four and a half inches long with a fiery orange throat. It was discovered in Gabon, Africa, and has been given the technical name Stiphrornis pyrrholaemus.

The bird was first spotted back in 2001 but was initially thought to be from a known species, however Brian Schmidt of the Smithsonian realised it had a different appearance. DNA tests have now confirmed that the olive-backed forest robin is indeed new. The new discovery brings the total number of known species in Gabon to 753 - there may still be many more unknown ones.

Alfonso Alonso of Gambon’s Biodiversity Program commented:

“Finding the olive-backed forest robin strongly underscores the importance of our research. This helps us show the conservation importance of the area.”

Topic Tag: Cryptozoology

The Manchester Evening News reports that last week’s rash of UFO reports in the Stretford area were the result not of alien activity but of children. Three youngsters were spotted releasing home made hot air balloons just before the reports.

Balloons of some sort are a frequent cause of UFO reports that later become IFOs (Identified Flying Objects). Stephen Mera of the Manchester Association of Paranormal Investigators and Training commented: “I think we'll see more of these throughout the summer. It's not the first time and it certainly won't be the last.”

Topic Tag: Ufology