I am the first person to admit when I am wrong, and it looks like my predictions from last month were plain wrong. We did not see the spike in reported sightings that I thought that we would see because of increased interest in UFOs and the lunar eclipse. In fact, we saw a slight decrease in UFO sightings. The decrease, however, was not enough to affect our current UFO activity level, leaving the UFO Activity Monitor at Average. The UFO Activity Monitor itself did get an overhaul, simplifying the activity scale and changing the style of the monitor graphic (for a full explanation of the changes see the UFO Activity Monitor about page). Since I do not have any information that would lead me to believe there is a major shift in UFO activity on the horizon, I believe that in the next month we will see no major change in the level of UFO activity.

Technorati Tags: UFOs sightings activity reports

Depending on your location, seeing a salamander is not particularly out of the ordinary. If you are exploring the brooks and ponds of China or Japan you may come across a Salamander so large that you may mistake it for some sort of river monster. The Chinese (Andrias davidianus) and Japanese (Andrias japonicus) giant Salamanders can grow up to 6 feet in length or larger dwarfing the next largest Salamander species, the American Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis), which only reaches lengths of just over 2 feet.

The Japanese variety is the smaller of the two growing to only 4 feet 9 inches. It is entirely aquatic, living is the clear cool streams of Japan. Hunting at night and having very poor eyesight, the Japanese Giant Salamander depends on special sensory nodes in its forehead to detect its prey’s movement through the water. Because it lacks any natural competition in its environment and has an extremely slow metabolism the Japanese Giant Salamander lives a very long life. One specimen in captivity in a Dutch zoo lived for 52 years.

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Technorati Tags: Cryptozoology, giant salamanders, monters, salamanders

Some of you may have noticed that our UFO Activity Monitor has moved from its previous home up at the top of the page to new digs in the sidebar. Along with the move, the Activity Monitor has received a minor re-tooling. We have simplified the system down to 4 levels indicated by a colored dot and a text label (as seen to the right). Instead of the previous 6 possible levels of UFO activity, we now have Low, Average, High and Contact.

Low (blue) now indicates activity at least one order of magnitude below the 10 year reporting average.

Average (green) indicates activity within +/- one order of magnitude of the statistical average.

High (orange) represents activity at least one order of magnitude above average.

Contact (red) represents the most exciting level of UFO activity. It represents public UFO sighings/landings being reported by the mass media (think UFO lands in Times Square, at the White House, etc).

For a peek at all the level graphics, check out the About Page for our UFO Activity Monitor.

Technorati Tags: activity, reports, UFO