BS: Strangest lifeform you have ever seen!

Subject: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 01:32 PM

I have seen four. These are for real but only one has been identifeid. The first was in the summer of 64 in Vestal NY. A 4 inch snowflake was within my grasp yet would allude caoture as if by magnetic repulsion. (this was identified at U of R as a rare flying web spinning aphid)

The second was clearly a solitary plant near the base of Cayuga Falls NY. It was on a thick 4 1/2 ft. stalk with no leaves and a globe about a foot in diameter on top of a silvery purple color.

The third may be in a genre outside a lifeform but there were 2 seperate 6 in. globes of light that emerged right though a brick wall into our back room at 23 Strathallan Pk Roch. NY. I was fascinated and touched one but the cat was frightened with its hair on end,

The last was actually my first as a yound child. On a clear day I would see rapidly flashing "things" go by. It would frighten me that adults could not see my "lightning beings". Nowadays some would say these could have been 'rods'.

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Noreen
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 01:42 PM

The third sounds like 'ball lightning', Donuel- which would also have made the cat's hair stand on end!

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: MMario
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 01:43 PM

The plant is a variety of Allium (related to onions) - I've seen them in the gorges myself.

third sounds like ball lightning - not common - but not that rare either.

the fourth sounds like floaters in the fluid of your eyeball.

Did you know Seamus Kennedy is singing at Milestones this sunday?

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Ebbie
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 01:44 PM

Donuel, you would be fun to know!

I remember 'remembering' more when I was a kid but I no longer remember what it was. If you can follow that.

Until I read on, I thought your 'globes of light' were actually fireballs of lightning- but I don't believe you could have touched one, definitely not without harm. Do you have any theories as to their origin?

I'm sure some mudcatters will list some of the life forms they have found in their refrigerators!

Ebbie

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 02:06 PM

The globes of light passed though the opposing wall as smooth as butter. When somthing disobeys 3 tenents of known physics it gets your attention. As a result I studied all I could find about dimensional incursions begining with flatland and going .

To this day I wish I had the courage to have touched the one globe beyond its nebulous event horizon ( stick my whole arm through it and not just extend a finger).

Either due to "excitment" or dysfunctional memory the incident does seem fragmented. For example the cat was locked in this room for a reason but after I touched the last globe (one folowing after another about 2 feet apart a foot below the ceiling) the cat was locked on the other side of the door.

I was a clinical hypnotist at the time (12 years total) but I assure you this was no hypnogogic reverie.

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 02:08 PM

We call refridgerator unknowns "meatcake"

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 02:09 PM

Is it meat or is it cake ?

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: mousethief
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 02:10 PM

Wasn't that a George Carlin routine?

Some people have all the luck. I've never seen anything even slightly "rum" as they say. My life has been an unending monotony of obedience to the known laws of physics. Sigh.

alex

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 02:27 PM

Thanks, 2 solved - 2 to go. New animals are still being discovered. The midget deer in Thailand/Cambodia that appear to have gills, deep sea vent worms , ancient horses near Mongolia etc.

Mudcaters I expect would not be timid about saying what they saw.

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 02:28 PM

Micca naked.

The vapour moth caterpillar. It looks like an animated olive green toothbrush with orange stripes, long hairy 'horns' and bright yellow belly.

LTS

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: MMario
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 02:33 PM

which two are you considering identified?

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: MMario
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 02:40 PM

this is prety strange (scroll down)

The Deer Antler Long-furred Winged Penguin Rattlesnake lives in forests. They make their nests in the under ground burrows that they dig out with their antlers. It eats anything that cant get away. Its fur is for keeping it warm in the winter. It has gills so it can breathe under water. Its penguin wings help it swim. Its only predators are bears

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 02:43 PM

The flying aphid on its snowflake web and the alien looking purple ball plant are3 the 2 "solved/known" lifeforms. Another one comes to mind that I saw in the great swamp of Batavia NY. It is a NEON orange plant parasite that grows prolificly over everything in its path. It is basicly a 1/2 inch neon stem that looks like a gigantic neon orange net that branches out hrizontaly and sucks life from . This swamp is a rare temperate jungle that has freshwater shrimp and many other things not found anywhere else. This place is in the same region of NY where you can practicaly dig anywhere and find mammoth bones.

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Justa Picker
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 02:43 PM

Powdered/freeze dried life forms.

One of my kids got this thing in a package in a birthday party grab bag. Got home, read the instructions and mixed the crystals with water. Next thing you know, little tadpoles swimming.

Brings a whole new meaning to the term "Get a Life!" :-)

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: gnu
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 02:44 PM

Alex... "yeah, I see it too." was indeed from a Carlin album on a cut about nursery rhimes. Something to do with mushrooms. Either "Class Clown" or, more likely, "Toledo Window Box".

As for the snowflake, static charges do build up on flakes, depending on the humidity and rate of fall. This could account for the inability to contact one.

Freaky stuff ? Number one in my books would be the Northern Lights, which cannot be described by words or video. Until you witness them up close, directly overhead, the AB displays as seen on TV are tame.

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: hesperis
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 02:48 PM

Hmmm, 6 inches diameter? If faeries exist, it could be faeries. (I'm serious.)

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 02:50 PM

The "snowflake" was a spider web substance the aphid spins. Somehow it is electrostaticly charged. the aphid sits in the middle and flys the darn thing.

correction: the neon orange stems are 1/4 inch thick. and above it should have read "2 of the 4"

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 02:57 PM

I read the faeries link on glowing sheres. The 2 differences are what I saw was slightly larger and could definetly pass through 'solid' matter.

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: MMario
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 02:58 PM

the neon orange net sounds suspiciously like "doddor" - a parasitic plant

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 03:05 PM

ANOTHER ONE SOLVED. Mudcaters are really "in the world"

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: MMario
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 03:10 PM

I still say ball lightning for the glowing spheres. Ball lighning CAN pass through solid objects -frequently without any damage - and also the "one following another" part is an observed behavior of multiple ball lightnings. I have also heard tell of people who have touched ball lightning without getting shocked - but I don't think I would have the guts to try it!

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: okthen
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 03:32 PM

A shop, local to me sells mermaid,fairy, and angel fossils, of course they are fake, they have to be, but they are well done and quite convincing.

cheers

bill

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: MMario
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 03:37 PM

why do they "have" to be?

MMario-whobelieves

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: mousethief
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 03:39 PM

Don't fairies' bodies blow away like dust when they die? On second thought, DO they die?

Alex

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Cobble
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 04:15 PM

About four years ago on the Isle of Skye we were driving along in the dark, it was pouring with rain but to the left of us the sky was clear and showing a beautiful silver moon. The silver light was reflected in the sea loch which was away below the level of the road. All of a sudden Brian shouts STOP, look at that. I stopped the car and brian opened the window letting in the pouring rain, but through the rain we could see, spanning the loch and the silver moon reflection a silver rainbow, a semi circle of silver light. I was a sight that legends are made of.

The next day we told several people what we had seen and all thought we must have had too much whisky. I had only drank coffee!

We have never heard of anyone else seeing a MoonBow.

It's the most eerie, but beautiful sight I have ever seen.

Mrs C

i stopped

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 04:29 PM

Perhaps what we call ball lightning that doesn't shock and does not bounce and can pass through solid objects as through thin air - is not ball lightning. One following another is still a curious behavior. I have seen the filmed behavior of ball lightning and earth lights and I would have to say there is a stronger resemblence to earth lights than ball lightning. I have also seen the film evidence of sprites that airline pilots used to speak of in hushed tones before the satilite images proved them real. They sort of look like upside down tornado cones of light and last only a split second. Clearly it is a phenomena of upper atmosheric lightning.

I have posted this "globe of light sighting elsewhere" but have not had nearly the insightful response as here at mudcat city.

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From:
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 04:40 PM

Cobble -

There is a waterfall not too far away from me where one can hike on a moonlit night and see a "moonbow." It is quite popular, but can't immediately think of the name of it. And, I don't remember if it is in East Tennessee or western North Carolina, but it is in the Great Smoky Mountains and well worth the walk.

As for unusual lifeforms: Although I knew what it was at the time, the size made this creature unusual. I was 8 years old and attending a girls camp in the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas (1949). About halfway up a mountain, there was a pavilion with only an old upright piano and bench as permanent residents. Quite often local musicians would come in the evening and play square dance and old-time music for us. One evening, a couple of my friends and I were practicing square dancing. One girl, who could play piano a bit, wanted to try to play one of the songs. She called to me to look at the "funny looking tree limb" on the keyboard. It was a curious brown color and had oddly placed "branches." I reached out to pick it up. My small hand did not fit around the girth of the "limb." As I closed my fingers, the "tree limb" writhed and began to crawl away. It was a common "walking stick" insect, but was about two feet long. Neither before nor since have I seen one that was more than, oh, maybe 5 inches long. Summoned by screams of one of the "city" girls, a counselor ran up and beat it to death and beyond with her tennis shoe. How I wish we could have preserved it.

Mary

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 04:46 PM

Just been reading about Ball Lightning. Apparently you can make it in a microwave. Not sure I have the nerve to try though.

Jon

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: mousethief
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 04:47 PM

Doesn't ball lightning require the air to be very, very dry?

Donuel, I have those squiggly things in my eyeballs too. They're especially easy to see when staring at a perfectly clear blue sky, for some reason. Mine sorta look like paper-clip chains.

Alex

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 04:56 PM

Floaters in the eyes are familiar to almost everyone but do not have the rapid movement and bright glint in the sun that I saw as a child , but your interpretation is reasonable.

Moon bows ?- this is a mental painting I will keep. Perhaps there are Jupiter bows on other moons in the solar system.

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: mousethief
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 04:58 PM

I get bright shinies too; they just started about a year ago. I wonder if it's a sign of impending mental illness?

alex

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: SINSULL
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 04:59 PM

One year I found cocoons on a bush out front. I cut the branches and kept them in a window box outside. It was a Gypsy Moth. Never have a seen a more frightening "bug" as it emerged from the cocoon, spread its wings and flew. Hideous to beautiful in about ten minutes.

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 05:06 PM

Cockroaches in Africa that are as big as a dollar bill (if you don't count the antennae, which are again as long as they are) and transparent, so you can see not only thier insides, but the floor through them as they scuttle around.

Also in Africa, Tunisia I think (it has a 4th grade flavor), there were caterpillars also the length of a dollar bill, but only about an inch in diameter, that were BRIGHT BRIGHT KELLY GREEN and had big triceratops horns.

Preemies! Timothy, especially, at 2lbs11, was not even in the human larval stage...

And I saw something once, not sure where, that looked a lot like the little aliens the cat/woman and bald man turned into at the end of Catspaw, I think, but I might not have the right Trek episode...

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: mousethief
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 05:19 PM

I weighed 3 lbs when I was born, but turned out to be human after all (at least I assume I'm human, being able to interbreed with other humans (unless my first wife wasn't human, which might be worth pondering)).

Alex

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Allan C.
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 05:22 PM

I just want to offer a clickie here for the location of the moonbows mentioned above. It is at Cumberland Falls State Resort Park in Kentucky.

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: mousethief
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 05:25 PM

To answer the question of the thread title, a pair of moths apparently fornicating on the back of a house in Chicago, Illinois. Wingspan was about 10 inches. Each.

(each moth, not each wing)

Alex

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 05:26 PM

Transparent cockroaches WOW. Someone mentioned getting the bright shinies last year and if it was mental illness. Well yes and no. It could be the aura onset of migraine headaches that do not evolve all the way to pain. The silvery flashes can be small or encompass ones entire vision. Then there are lesions but we won't go there.

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Sorcha
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 05:36 PM

Beginning cataracts can cause floaters, too, but I don't think they are usually shiny.

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: mousethief
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 05:39 PM

Oooooh, I had a visual migraine once, about 4 years ago. Totally freaky. It was like a really psychodelic light show, but without the drugs (or the Pink Floyd soundtrack). Maybe this is related, then.

Alex

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: mousethief
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 05:41 PM

Well the floaters I've had all my life; at least since I was 5, anyway.

My stepdad calls pork chops baked in cream-of-mushroom soup, "floaters." I wonder if they can cause cataracts?

Alex

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: mooman
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 05:54 PM

I just love Tardigrades and the more I read about them the more fascinated I am. Clickit here is a good starting page about them.

mooman

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 05:59 PM

The strangest life form I have ever seen was my newborn son. He came out all purplish and bloody, and with this long gray thing attached to his belly. But they got him cleaned up pretty well, and now he seems almost normal.

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 06:04 PM

well, I happened on a punk-rock concert once...two-legged beings with green, spiked hair and safty pins thru their noses were leaping from the speaker cabinets and landing on their heads, which only exacerbated their bizarre behavior.....I went away from there...

but this is also pretty strange...

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: catspaw49
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 06:08 PM

Beat me to the Cumberland Falls Moonbows. I've been there on several occasions when they were visible. Only happens at specific times of the month and also under the right atmospheric conditions. I've spent many nights there when they should appear but don't. Great place to stay BTW......beautiful country and great hiking. About 35 miles away is one of the most beautiful places that no one ever goes......a 4 foot wide and 103 foot tall waterfall in this lovely hollow....the best!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 06:11 PM

If you are going to single out people there is always Warren Christopher (Vulcan?) or you can go to uglypeople.com

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Amergin
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 06:19 PM

mollificent is a bit odd....

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Cobble
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 06:39 PM

Allan C..

Thanks for the info on Cumberland Falls. Pleased to know others have seen a moonbow, and it was'nt the faries

Interesting it is stated it's the only place in the western world this phenomenon can be seen! How do we define " Western World" ? We saw the Moonbow by Loch Greshornish, Isle of Skye off the West Coast of Scotland.

Mrs C

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 06:58 PM

hmmm...messed up my HTML above try this:

but this is also pretty strange... frogfishes

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 07:01 PM

Tried to find ugly people, can you provide a blue clicky please?

LTS

Subject: RE: BStrangest lifeform you have ever seen!
From: CarolC
Date: 15 Jun 01 - 07:14 PM

The neon orange stringy stuff is definitely 'dodder', as MMario suggested. It looks like neon orange silly string sprayed all over a bunch of plants. I thought I was seeing something 'not from this world' first time I saw it.

This one was strange more for its location than anything else...

When I was a zookeeper, I was responsible for the 'North American Small Mammals'. One day, I was working in the outside run of the Arctic Fox enclosure. The foxes were inside the building and the outside run was empty. The enclosure had walls on two sides, chain link fence on two sides, and chain link fence above. About two or three feet above the upper chain link fence, there was a corrugated metal roof supported by I-beams.

I never really used to look up at the roof, so I was startled to the point of jumping when something landed with a loud chinky thump on the chain link above me. I looked up at it and didn't recognize it as anything that occurred naturally in that area. And I was very familiar with the native species because I had spent a recent summer working as an interpretive naturalist, where it was my job to know those kinds of things.

Turns out it was one of the brown lemurs from the primate section that had escaped.