The Glastonbury, England, teenager -- originally named George Garratt -- said his new name, which is thought to be the world's longest, has so outraged his grandmother that she is no longer speaking to him, The Telegraph reported Monday.

The teen said he used an online service to officially change his name for a $20 fee.

"I wanted to be unique," Captain Fantastic said of his name choice. "I decided upon a theme of superheroes." >>>>

The faded papers hint at stark details in the lives of Nazi concentration camp inmates.

Letters secretly carried by children through the sewers of Warsaw, Poland, during the 1944 uprising. A 1933 card from a Dachau camp commander outlining strict rules for prisoner mail. A 1943 letter from a young man, who spent time in Auschwitz, to his parents.

The more than 250 World War II postal documents — cards, letters and stamps — have been acquired by an Illinois foundation from a private collector and will soon be on permanent display in a museum in suburban Chicago.

"These artifacts underscore the very personal dimension to this catastrophe," said Richard Hirschhaut, the executive director of the Skokie-based Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, where the exhibit will be housed next year when the museum opens.

"It now will reach an exponentially larger audience and serve as a genuine tool for education and learning," Hirschhaut said.

The Holocaust memorial exhibit belonged to longtime postal memorabilia collector and activist Ken Lawrence of Pennsylvania. It was called "The Nazi Scourge: Postal Evidence of the Holocaust and the Devastation of Europe."

The Florence and Laurence Spungen Family Foundation, based in Northbrook, Ill., recently bought the collection and has added to it.

"The insured value of the collection is $1 million, but the educational value to future generations is incalculable," said Daniel Spungen, a board member of the foundation, in a statement.

The exhibit also includes a handwritten Bible scroll in Hebrew that was used by a German soldier to mail a package. There are also documents sent to a Nazi doctor on trial for war crimes at Nuremberg.

Lawrence, the former vice president of the American Philatelic Society, meticulously collected the documents for more than three decades. His project was sparked by claims that the Holocaust never occurred.

He has since showcased the collection around the country, garnering awards.

The exhibit, which can also be viewed online, will travel to Billings, Mont., in December, followed by Santa Barbara, Calif., later in the winter.

SOPHIA TAREEN

A four-year-old cat in Germany called Bonny has survived after being walled in beneath a bathtub for seven weeks, its owner said Tuesday.

"It's a miracle," said Monika Hoppert, a 60-year-old widow from the western town of Stadthagen. "I'm a strong believer, I think she must have had a guardian angel. I'm so happy."

Bonny disappeared on June 19 while workmen were replacing pipes in the block of flats where Hoppert lives. The black cat was last seen in a neighboring apartment, where the cladding around a bathtub had been removed.

Just before tub was sealed up again, Bonny had probably crept underneath, Hoppert said.

By the time the neighbor heard Bonny's plaintive miaowing from behind the tiles on August 8, the cat's weight had dropped from 13 pounds to 4 pounds.

"I couldn't believe it. But when I got down there, I knew it was my cat because they all have their own voice," said Hoppert.

Bonny was so weak the vet recommended she be put down. But Hoppert nursed her back to health with watered down kitten food.

"She's almost back to normal now. This morning was the first time she'd jumped onto my bed again," Hoppert said. >>>>

A man believed to have died in a Colorado flood in 1976 has been found living in Oklahoma.

Sixty-three-year-old Darrell Johnson told the Fort Collins Coloradoan for a story Friday that he didn't know he had been counted among the 144 victims of the Big Thompson Canyon flood until a resident called him last year.

Barb Anderson said residents didn't want his name on a memorial plaque without proof he was dead.

Johnson and his family had decided to leave their shabby cabin the morning of the flood after just one night. A few hours later, the resort was washed away.

How Johnson ended up on the victims list remains a mystery.

He now directs funerals in Oklahoma City and acknowledges he was lucky to get the bad cabin. >>>>

A Dutch woman who reached 115 years of age and remained mentally sharp throughout life also had a healthy brain when she died, a new study finds.

The woman's brain showed almost no evidence of Alzheimer's disease. The finding suggests Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia are not inevitable, as had been suspected.

"Our observations suggest that, in contrast to general belief, the limits of human cognitive function may extend far beyond the range that is currently enjoyed by most individuals," said lead researcher Gert Holstege, a neuroscientist at the University Medical Center Groningen, in The Netherlands.

The results are detailed in the August issue of the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

At age 82, the Dutch woman made arrangements to donate her body to science after death. She contacted Holstege when she reached age 111, worried that her body was too old to be useful for research or teaching purposes. The neuroscientists reassured her that, contrary to her belief, they were particularly interested due to her age. 

"She was very enthusiastic about her being important for science," Holstege and his colleagues write in the journal article.

Neurological and psychological examinations were performed when the centenarian was 112 and 113 years old. The results were essentially normal, with no signs of dementia or problems with memory or attention. Her mental performance was above average for adults aged 60 to 75.

When the woman died at age 115, her body was donated to science. Holstege's team found no signs of narrowing of the arteries, called atherosclerosis, and very few brain abnormalities. In fact, the number of brain cells was similar to that expected in healthy people between 60 and 80 years old.

The woman's brain showed little or no evidence of Alzheimer's disease. The neuroscientists found almost no deposits of so-called beta-amyloid, which are characteristic in Alzheimer's brains. The other abnormalities present, including "neurofibrillary tangles," were very mild, and would not have caused significant mental impairment.

Currently, there are more than 80,000 Americans 100 years of age or older, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That number is expected to rise to more than 580,000 centenarians by 2040.

A recent study of a man who lived to age 114 found a combination of genes and lifestyle play a role in longevity, though the long-life recipe is far from clear. 

As the number of people living to age 100 and beyond continues to increase, the researchers say, deterioration of the brain is not inevitable.

·                     Video: Why We Age

·                     Special Report: Toward Immortality

·                     Top 10 Immortals >>>>

Five European divers who had been missing for two days in treacherous waters east of Bali were found drifting but alive by fishermen on Saturday, Indonesian police said.

Police in the Nusa Tenggara island chain where the divers went missing late Thursday said fishermen had located them south of the tiny island of Rinca.

"Fishermen found them floating in the water. They are all safe," Manggarai Barat district police chief Butje Hello told AFP.

He said the divers -- three Britons, a Frenchman and a Swede -- were being taken to Labuanbajo, the western port of Flores island.

The husband of one of the missing British divers told AFP he had not yet spoken to his wife but he was relieved she had been found alive after apparently being swept away in strong currents on Thursday afternoon.

"They are all alive and medical services are on standby. Thank God. I just want to hear my wife's voice," dive master Ernest Lewandowski said.

Police said at least one of the divers was dehydrated but otherwise their condition was not known. A British embassy spokeswoman said a doctor was tending to them.

"We are still in close contact with the local authorities," the embassy spokeswoman said in Jakarta.

A lack of fuel for aircraft meant police had to call on fishermen to help cover the vast search area, after only three search boats could be deployed on Friday.

A commercial aircraft which was scheduled to fly over the area on Saturday morning had promised to circle for an hour but in the end it was not needed.

Lewandowski said he and his wife, Kathleen Mitchinson, who together own the Reefseekers Diving business on Flores, were leading two separate groups of divers when his wife's group got into difficulty.

He only noticed they were missing when his group surfaced an hour after entering the water.

The divers were exploring reefs in the Komodo National Park -- famed for the giant lizard of the same name -- when they vanished in the late afternoon on Thursday.

The area lies about 500 kilometres (300 miles) east of the popular tourist resort island of Bali. It is well known for its teeming sealife at dive sites up to 40 metres deep.

Small reef sharks are common but divers say the main threat comes from currents formed by the combination of relatively shallow water, large depth variations and the channels formed between islands.

The currents can reach eight knots and develop suddenly during tide changes.

A tired or inexperienced diver caught in such a rip could be carried tens of kilometres in a matter of hours and for this reason dive operators do not recommend the area for beginners.

Lewandowski said he and his wife were both experienced divers whose shop was one of only a handful of diving businesses that operates in the national park. >>>>

A Cedar Rapids man mowing his lawn has stumbled into a big hole — but the origin is a mystery. Rick Thompson discovered the hole on Wednesday. He says the grass seemed a little soft in that spot, and he blamed it on the rain. Then his leg sank up to his calf. He grabbed the lawn mower to stop himself from sinking any more.

Thompson started digging around the hole, which turned out to be 7-10 feet deep, with water and rusty pipes in the bottom.

Thompson's wife, Sharon, called the city, but even with expert help, no one could solve the mystery. She says some think it could be a well or an old septic tank.

The Thompsons have blocked off the area until they can hire someone to remove the pipes and fill up the hole. >>>>

Iraqi troops freed a kidnapped British journalist for CBS News on Monday after finding him hooded and bound in a house during a raid in a Shiite militia stronghold in Basra.

Richard Butler's rescue after two months in captivity was a welcome success story for the Iraqi military, which has been strongly criticized for its effort to impose order on Iraq's second-largest city, an oil hub 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.

It came on a day in which at least 37 people were killed or found dead nationwide — half of them in bombings near or in the northwestern city of Mosul.

Roadside bombings killed two U.S. soldiers, one in Baghdad and the other in the northern Salahuddin province, the military said. At least 4,034 members of the American military have died since the war started in March 2003.

Butler was thin but in good condition and laughing as he was shown on Iraqi state television hugging well-wishers and greeting beaming Iraqi officials.

"Thank you and I'm looking forward to seeing my family and my friends at CBS and thank you again," Butler said.

"I'm pretty weak and I've lost quite a bit of weight," he said later. "I'm looking forward to a decent meal."

Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said the troops were not in fact looking for Butler. He said an army patrol conducting a sweep of the area responded after coming under fire from the house where he was being held in the Jibiliya neighborhood.

One of the gunmen was wounded in an exchange of fire and another was captured while two men escaped, he said.

When asked by al-Askari on Iraqi television if the Iraqi army was good, Butler said it was "brilliant."

"The Iraqi army stormed the house and overcame my guards and they burst through the door," Butler said. "I had my hood on, which I had to have on all the time, and they shouted something at me and I pulled my hood off."

Basra security commander Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji said Butler was sitting on the floor with his head covered by a sack and his hands tied when the troops stumbled upon him.

Butler had been held since Feb. 10, when masked gunmen seized him and his Iraqi interpreter from Basra's Sultan Palace Hotel.

The interpreter was released within days, but Butler remained in captivity despite claims by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office that it was negotiating with the kidnappers for his release.

Harith al-Edhari, a director of al-Sadr's office in Basra, said the kidnappers had rejected their efforts and threatened him over the issue. "The kidnappers have nothing to do with the Sadrist movement," he said.

In London, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband thanked the Iraqi security forces "for the professionalism of the task they have undertaken" and said Butler was in the care of the British consulate in Basra.

CBS News spokeswoman Sandy Genelius said the network was "incredibly grateful that our colleague ... has been released and is safe."

The gratitude was eagerly accepted by the Iraqi government, which has been embarrassed by the failure of a major offensive that began on March 25 to dislodge militia groups from Basra.

Iraqi security forces were surprised by the ferocious resistance mounted by the outnumbered militiamen, despite artillery and air support provided by U.S. and British forces.

More than 1,000 security troops — including a full infantry battalion — refused to fight or joined the militias, handing them weapons and vehicles. Those troops were later dismissed from their jobs, along with about 300 police officers in the southern city of Kut.

That decision drew an angry response from al-Sadr, who demanded Monday that the security forces be reinstated.

"All the brothers in the army and police who gave up their arms to their brothers (Sadrists) were only obeying their grand religious leaders, and they were driven by their religious duties," the anti-U.S. cleric said.

The fighting, which quickly spread to other cities in the southern Shiite heartland and Baghdad, ebbed after al-Sadr ordered a cease-fire — though sporadic violence continues.

A large section of a market area in eastern Baghdad was set ablaze Monday when a bomb exploded next to a convoy of U.S. military vehicles. No casualties were reported in the 2 a.m. blast.

Another roadside bomb hit a minibus in downtown Baghdad, killing five passengers and wounding nine, police said.

In northern Iraq, meanwhile, a parked car bomb exploded near an Iraqi army convoy west of Mosul, killing 12 Kurdish soldiers and wounding five, police chief Col. Mutlaq al-Shimmari said.

In Tal Afar, south of Mosul, a suicide bomber attacked a funeral for a Shiite family, killing five people and wounding 22, Mayor Najim Abdullah said.

U.S. soldiers unearthed a mass grave Sunday containing as many as 30 badly decomposed bodies near Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

In 1991, Atlanta, Ga. resident Pam Reynolds had a near-death experience (NDE). Reynolds underwent surgery for a brain aneurysm, and the procedure required doctors to drain all the blood from her brain. Reynolds was kept literally brain-dead by the surgical team for a full 45 minutes. Despite being clinically dead, when Reynolds was resuscitated, she described some amazing things. She recounted experiences she had while dead -- like interacting with deceased relatives. Even more amazing is that Reynolds was able to describe aspects of the surgical procedure, down to the bone saw that was used to remove part of her skull [source: Parker].

What's remarkable (although not unique) about Reynolds' experience is that it is the combination of an NDE and an out-of-body-experience (OBE). HowStuffWorks has braved this territory on the edge of reality, explaining how near-death experiences work and how a person can have an out-of-body experience. Science, too, has made its own headway toward explaining these weird phenomena. Two studies on the separate aspects of Reynolds' experience were conducted in 2007. Each seems to explain how a person can have an OBE or a NDE, but do they hold up in explaining experiences like Reynolds'? ­­

As many as 18 percent of people brought back from death after a heart attack said they'd had a NDE [source: Time]. While many religious adherents might not be surprised by these accounts, the idea that human consciousness and the body exist distinctly from each other flies in the face of science. A brain-dead person should not be able to form new memories -- he shouldn't have any consciousness at all, really. So how can anything but a metaphysical explanation cover NDEs?

A study from the University of Kentucky has quickly gained ground among scientists as possibly the best explanation for NDEs. Researchers there theorize that the mysterious phenomenon is really an instance of the sleep disorder rapid eye movement (REM) intrusion. In this disorder, a person's mind can wake up before his body, and hallucinations and the feeling of being physically detached from his body can occur.

The Kentucky researchers believe that NDEs are actually REM intrusions triggered in the brain by traumatic events like cardiac arrest. If this is true, then this means the experiences of some people following near-death are confusion from suddenly and unexpectedly entering a dream-like state.

This theory helps explain what has always been a tantalizing aspect of the mystery of NDEs: how people can experience sights and sounds after confirmed brain death. The area where REM intrusion is triggered is found in the brain stem -- the region that controls the most basic functions of the body -- and it can operate virtually independent from the higher brain. So even after the higher regions of the brain are dead, the brain stem can conceivably continue to function, and REM intrusion could still occur [source: BBC].

This sounds like a good explanation for NDEs, but what about OBEs? Are they the same thing? Read the next page to discover the distinctions between near-death and out-of-body experiences.

Video Gallery: Life-or-Death Situations

Watch this video about how the brain reacts to life or death situations on HowStuffWorks. Researchers are studying a mechanism in the brain that determines if a stressful situation is controllable or not. Learn the human brain processes life or death situations in this video from ScienCentral.

The Temporal Parietal Junction and OBEs

While the REM intrusion theory for near-death experiences explains the apparent hallucinations that accompany NDEs, another aspect remains a mystery. How can a person watch his body after he dies? Though out-of-body experiences are sometimes reported as part of the near-death experience, they can also stand alone, indicating that they are a different animal than NDEs.

This is supported by a bit of accidental research. To find the cause of a 43-year-old epileptic patient's seizures, Swiss neurologist Dr. Olaf Blanke conducted a brain mapping test using electrodes planted on the brain to determine which area controls what function. As one region was being stimulated, the woman had a sudden out-of-body experience. She told Blanke that she could see herself from above [source: New York Times].

Blanke determined that by electrically stimulating the woman's angular gyrus, a part of the temporal parietal junction, he could induce her OBEs. What's remarkable is that the patient experienced an OBE each time her angular gyrus was arbitrarily stimulated.

At any given time, the brain is assaulted with information. As a result, we become desensitized to the sights and sounds around us, such as the buzz of a fluorescent light. The temporal parietal junction (TPJ) is responsible for sorting through this disparate information and putting it together into a coherent package.

The TPJ also happens to be the region that controls our comprehension of our own body and its situation in space. Blanke believes that a misfiring of this region is responsible for OBEs. If any of the information being sorted by the temporal parietal junction becomes crossed, like where we are in space, then we could seemingly be released from the confines of our body -- even if only for a moment.

Both Blanke's and the University of Kentucky theories explain OBEs and NDEs. But what about when you put the two together as an explanation for experiences like that of Pam Reynolds? This still does not resolve how Pam Reynolds and others like her view themselves outside of their bodies while they were brain-dead.

NDEs may be a result of REM intrusion, triggered in the brain stem. But OBEs are controlled by a region of the higher brain, which is clinically dead when NDEs occur. What's more, it seems logical to believe that the higher brain must still function in order to interpret the sensations produced by the REM intrusion triggered in the brain stem.

Even though combining the University of Kentucky and Blanke theories does not produce an explanation for NDEs, it does not mean that either theory is wrong. Research in one area often leads to a breakthrough in another. Perhaps we will find out that an organic function is indeed behind NDEs.

If neurology does come up with the definitive explanation for NDEs, the mystery may still remain. Science could explain the "how," while leaving the "why" unanswered. Discovering an explanation for NDEs may reveal a door to the metaphysical world, which could possibly be unlocked -- and explored -- by science.

As physician Dr. Melvin Morse wrote, "Simply because religious experiences are brain-based does not automatically lessen or demean their spiritual significance. Indeed, the findings of neurological substrates to religious experiences can be argued to provide evidence for their objective reality" [source: Morse].

Josh Clark

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You won't find it on any official map and you won't know when you cross the line, but according to some people, the Bermuda Triangle is a very real place where dozen of ships, planes and people have disappeared with no good explanation. Since a magazine first coined the phrase "Bermuda Triangle" in 1964, the mystery has continued to attract attention. When you dig deeper into most cases, though, they're much less mysterious. Either they were never in the area to begin with, they were actually found, or there's a reasonable explanation for their disappearance.

Does this mean there's nothing to the claims of so many who have had odd experiences in the Bermuda Triangle? Not necessarily. Scientists have documented deviations from the norm in the area and have found some interesting formations on the seafloor within the Bermuda Triangle's boundaries. So, for those who like to believe in it, there is plenty fuel for the fire.

In this article, we'll look at the facts surrounding what we do know about the area as well as some of the most commonly-recited stories. We'll also explore the bizarre theories like aliens and space portals as well as the mundane explanations.

Many think of the Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, as an "imaginary" area. The U. S. Board of Geographic Names does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle and does not maintain an official file on it. However, within this imaginary area, many real vessels and the people aboard them have seemingly disappeared without explanation.

The Bermuda Triangle is located off the Southeastern coast of the United States in the Atlantic Ocean, with its apexes in the vicinities of Bermuda, Miami, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. It covers roughly 500,000 square miles.

The area may have been named after its Bermuda apex since Bermuda was once known as the "Isle of Devils." Treacherous reefs that have ensnared ships sailing too close to its shores surround Bermuda, and there are hundreds of shipwrecks in the waters that surround it.

The Devils' Sea

The Devil's Sea, also called the Formosa Triangle, is located off the coast of Japan in a region of the Pacific around Miyake Island, about 110 miles south of Tokyo. Like the Bermuda Triangle, the Devil's Sea doesn't appear on any official maps, but the name is used by Japanese fishermen. The area is known for strange disappearances of ships and planes - at least by those in the United States.

Another myth is that, like the Bermuda Triangle, the Devil's Sea is the only other area where a compass points to true north rather than magnetic north (more about this later).

One popular theory is that volcanic activity around the area, particularly an underwater volcano, could be responsible for the disappearances.

The Bermuda Triangle Mystery

Over the past 100 years, the Bermuda Triangle has seen what some say is a significant and inordinately high number of unexplained disappearances of planes, ships and people. Some reports say that as many as 100 ships and planes have been reported missing in the area and more than 1,000 lives have been lost. The U.S. Coast Guard, however, maintains that the area does not have an unusual number of incidents.

In 1975, Mary Margaret Fuller, editor of "Fate" magazine, contacted Lloyd's of London for statistics on insurance payoffs for incidents occurring within the Bermuda Triangle's usually accepted boundaries. According to Lloyd's records, 428 vessels were reported missing throughout the world between 1955 and 1975, and there was no greater incidence of events occurring in the Bermuda Triangle than anywhere else in the world.

Gian J. Quasar, author of "Into the Bermuda Triangle: Pursuing the Truth Behind the World's Greatest Mystery" and curator of Bermuda-triangle.org, argues that this report "is completely false." Quasar reasons that because Lloyd's does not insure small crafts like yachts and often doesn't insure small charter boats or private aircraft, its records can't be the definitive source. He also states that the Coast Guard's records, which it publishes annually, do not include "missing vessels." He requested data on "overdue vessels" and received (after 12 years of asking) records of 300 missing/overdue vessels for the previous two years. Whether those vessels ultimately returned is unknown. His Web site has a list of these vessels.

The National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) database indicates (according to Gian J. Quasar) that only a handful of aircraft have disappeared off the New England coast over the past 10 years, while over 30 have occurred in the Bermuda Triangle.

The mystery of the Triangle probably took hold with the first well-publicized disappearance in 1945, when five Navy Avengers disappeared in the area. The cause of the disappearance was originally "pilot error," but family members of the pilot leading the mission couldn't accept that he had made such a mistake. Eventually they convinced the Navy to change it to "causes or reasons unknown."

The myth gained momentum after reporter E.V.W. Jones compiled a list of "mysterious disappearances" of ships and planes between the Florida coast and Bermuda. Two years later, George X. Sand wrote an article for "Fate" magazine, titled "Sea Mystery at our Back Door." The article was about a "series of strange marine disappearances, each leaving no trace whatever, that have taken place in the past few years" in a "watery triangle bounded roughly by Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico."

As more incidents occurred, the reputation grew and past events were reanalyzed and added to the legend. In 1964, "Argosy Magazine" gave the triangle its name in an article titled "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle" by Vincent Gaddis. Argosy magazine's tagline a "magazine of master fiction," but that did nothing to halt the spread of the myth. More articles, books, and movies have appeared, suggesting theories ranging from alien abductions to a giant octopus.

Is Insurance Higher in the Bermuda Triangle?

According to Norman Hooke, who conducted marine casualty studies for Lloyd's Maritime Information Services, based in London, "The Bermuda Triangle does not exist." He instead says that disappearances in the Triangle are typically weather-related. So despite the theories of why ships and planes disappear in the area, insurance premiums are no higher than for any other area of the ocean.

Well-known Disappearances

Many Bermuda Triangle Web sites include long lists of missing ships and planes. But many of those were nowhere near the Triangle when they disappeared or they turned up later with rational explanations for their disappearances. For example, the Mary Celeste, found floating in 1872 with not a person on board and everything exactly as they had left it, is on nearly every list of losses blamed on the Bermuda Triangle. But in reality, it was many hundreds of miles from the Triangle at the time.

Here is a sampling of the some of the most notable incidents. As you'll see, some of these have reasonable explanations although they're still attributed to the strange and unknown powers of the Bermuda Triangle.

The U.S.S. Cyclops, 1918
During World War I, the U.S.S. Cyclops served along the eastern coast of the United States until January 9, 1918. At that time, she was assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service. The Cyclops was scheduled to sail to Brazil to refuel British ships in the south Atlantic. She set out from Rio de Janeiro on February 16, and, after a brief stop in Barbados from March 3 to 4, was never seen or heard from again. All 306 passengers and crew were gone without a trace.

U.S. Navy Avengers Flight 19, 1945
The most famous Bermuda Triangle story is the mystery surrounding five missing Navy Avengers in 1945. The story of Flight 19 is usually summarized this way: a routine patrol set out on a sunny day with five highly experienced student pilots. Suddenly, the tower began receiving transmissions from the flight leader that they were lost, compasses were not working, and "everything looked wrong." They were never seen again, and extensive Navy investigations turned up no clues to explain the disappearance.

Lieutenant Charles C. Taylor led the mission, which included several planned course changes. They departed at 1:15 p.m. on December 5, 1945. At 3:00 p.m., Lieutenant Robert F. Cox was flying over Fort Lauderdale, Florida when he heard a signal that he thought was from a boat or plane in distress. He called Operations at the Naval Air Station to report what he had heard. Cox told Taylor to fly with the sun at his left wing and up the coast until he hit Miami. Taylor then said that they were over a small island with no other land in sight. If he was over the Keys as he had said, however, he should have seen several islands as well as the Florida peninsula.

With less than two hours' flying time until they ran out of fuel, Taylor described a large island to Operations. Assuming this was Andros Island, the largest in the Bahamas, Operations sent Taylor a heading that would take him to Fort Lauderdale. Apparently this heading was correct, because once Flight 19 assumed the new course, Taylor's voice began coming in stronger over the radio. Taylor, however, didn't believe this course was right and after a few minutes said that they "didn't go far enough east. Turn around again and go east. We should have a better chance of being picked up closer to shore." With this move, transmissions began to weaken as they flew out of radio range in the wrong direction. For unknown reasons, Taylor ignored the standard flying procedure of flying west if over water and east if over land.

Two PBM-5 Mariner seaplanes went out to search the area, but one exploded soon after takeoff. The other never located Flight 19.

More Disappearances

DC-3 Flight NC-16002, 1948
On December 28, 1948, Captain Robert Lindquist of flight NC-16002 was piloting DC-3 commercial flight NC-16002 from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Miami, Florida. He radioed Miami when they were 50 miles away and requested landing instructions. Miami radioed back with the instructions, but got no reply. The plane never arrived and was never heard from again. Although many reports state there was no radio trouble and that the weather was clear, the accident investigation report from the Civil Aeronautics Board says differently.

According to the report, the plane had electrical difficulties from the beginning and its batteries needed a recharge so it could communicate with the tower. But rather than charging the batteries prior to takeoff, Lindquist instructed the ground crew to refill the water in the batteries and replace them in the plane. He originally canceled his flight plan because of the battery difficulties, and was directed to remain in San Juan until he established radio contact with the tower and reinstated his flight plan. But 11 minutes after takeoff, Lindquist radioed to the tower that they were proceeding to Miami. The tower never received the transmission, but CAA Communications in San Juan did. All attempts to contact the flight were unsuccessful. In the flight's final radio communication, Lindquist stated that they were 50 miles south of Miami.

The Civil Aeronautics Board report analysis includes the assumption that some failure in the electrical system made the aircraft's radio and automatic compass inoperative after the final communication. It also assumes that because Captain Lindquist didn't communicate with the tower, he didn't know about changes in the weather. The wind direction had changed, which would have made his plane drift left of its actual course by as much as 50 miles. Since the captain's location was an estimate based on his flight time, speed, and weather conditions, he could easily have been off-course. The plane had fuel for seven and a half hours of flight. At the time of his last communication, he had been flying for a little more than six hours. He may have then crashed into the Gulf of Mexico after running out of fuel. No debris was found, but the crash could have occurred in an area where the water is extremely deep and any evidence of the crash would disappear quickly.

The S.S. Marine Sulpher Queen

The S.S. Marine Sulphur Queen was a tanker was bound for Norfolk, Virginia from Beaumont, Texas carrying 15,000 tons of molten sulphur in heated tanks. Its last communication took place on Feb. 3, 1963, when its captain radioed a routine position report. The message placed her near Key West in the Florida Straits. She never reached Virginia.

Three days after the position report, Coast Guard searchers found a single life jacket floating 40 miles southwest of the tanker's last known position. It's likely that leaking sulphur may have caused an explosion. Escaping sulphur gas could have poisoned the crew and prevented them from sending a distress call. Officers on a Honduran banana boat reported to the Coast Guard that their freighter ran into a strong, acrid odor 15 miles off Cape San Antonia, the western tip of Cuba, just before dawn on February 3.

The area was known for being infested with sharks and barracuda, so it wasn't surprising that no bodies were ever found. The U.S. Coast Guard History Archive lists the following items eventually found from the Sulphur Queen: two pieces of board bearing the name of the ship, eight life jackets (some with rips believed caused by sharks teeth), five life rings, one shirt, one piece of oar, one oil can, one gasoline can, one cone buoy and one fog horn.

Milwaukee's 440th Airlift Wing, Plane 680, 1965
On a clear night in 1965, a seasoned flying crew from the Air Force Reserve Command's 440th Airlift Wing flew from Milwaukee on the heavily traveled Yankee Route, on their way to Grand Turk Island in the Bahamas. They landed as scheduled at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida at 5:04 p.m. and spent two hours and 43 minutes on the ground. Then they took off at 7:47 p.m. and headed south to the Bahamas, but never reached their destination.

There was no indication of trouble and all radio communication was routine. When they didn't land, radio traffic controllers started calling Plane 680 but didn't receive a response. Only a few scraps of debris were found, and those could have been tossed out of the cargo plane. Among those on board was an expert maintenance crew, so if there was a mechanical problem on the flight, there were plenty of people to take care of it. There was no explanation for the disappearance of Plane 680.

Recent Cases

In this day of GPS navigation, it's hard to imagine a ship or plane could actually disappear. However, there have been some recent disappearances attributed to the Bermuda Triangle:

·                     DC-3 N407D, lost on September 21, 1978

·                     Fighting Tiger 524, lost on February 22, 1978

·                     Beechcraft N9027Q, lost on February 11, 1980

·                     Ercoupe N3808H, lost on June 28, 1980

·                     Beech Bonanza, lost on January 6, 1981

·                     Piper Cherokee N3527E, lost on March 26, 1986

·                     Grumman Cougar Jet, lost on October 31, 1991

·                     Jamanic K motor vessel, lost en route from Cape Haitian to Miami on March 20, 1995

·                     Genesis motor vessel, disappeared en route from Port of Spain, Trinidad to St. Vincent on April 21, 1999

·                     Cessna 210, drops off radar from Freeport to Nassau on June 14, 1999

Farfetched Theories

Aliens and Atlantis
As an area with one of the highest incidences of UFO sightings, it's no wonder that alien abductions have been a popular explanation for disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle. But abductions aren't the only theory; some also have theorized that the Bermuda Triangle area is a portal to other planets. But why this area?

Many believe that the Bermuda Triangle area is home to the lost city of Atlantis and remnants of its advanced technologies. Famous psychic Edgar Cayce said that Atlantis had many modern-day technologies, including a death ray weapon, which he claims ultimately destroyed the city. Some even say that the people who lived there were an alien race from the Pleiades star cluster.

Cayce had predicted that researchers would discover the western edge of Atlantis near the coast of Bimini, in the Bahamas, and they did find a "road" of stones there in 1968. The initial researchers and archeologists who studied the site, known as the "Bimini Road," immediately regarded it as naturally occurring. Recent investigations, however, have found evidence that appears to support the idea that the stones were shaped and placed there as a wall. The additional finding of a possible underwater city near Cuba adds fuel to the fire for those supporting the Atlantis idea.

According to legend and speculation, the city of Atlantis relied on the power of special energy crystals that were extremely powerful. Cayce supported this idea, and the discovery of a great underwater pyramid and crystal by Dr. Ray Brown in 1970 reinforced it. Brown was scuba diving in the Bahamas when he claims to have found a large pyramid made of mirror-like stone. He entered the pyramid and saw a brassy metallic rod with a multi-faceted red gem hanging from the apex of the room. Directly below this rod was a stand with bronze hands holding a crystal sphere four inches in diameter. Brown removed the crystal and kept it secret until 1975, when he exhibited it at a psychic seminar in Phoenix, Arizona. He reported that when gazing into the crystal form, you can see three pyramidal images, one in front of the other with each decreasing in size. Some people have seen a fourth pyramid in front of the other three after entering into deep meditative states.

Brown believes that the fractured lines seen when looking at the crystal sphere from the side may be electrical in nature, similar to a form of microscopic circuitry. The speculation is that these energy crystals are in an altered state of some kind and send out rays of energy that either confuse navigational instruments or disintegrate vehicles all together.

Magnetic Abnormalities

"The Fog: A Never Before Published Theory of the Bermuda Triangle Phenomenon," by Rob MacGregor and Bruce Gernon include reports of an "electronic fog" that both men experienced while flying in the Bermuda Triangle. On December 4, 1970, Gernon and his father were flying to Bimini in clear skies when they saw a strange cloud with almost perfectly round edges hovering over the Miami shore. As they flew over it, the cloud began spreading out, matching or exceeding their speed. At 11,500 feet, they thought that they had escaped the "cloud," only to discover that it had formed a tunnel. It appeared the only way they could escape the cloud was to go through the tunnel. Once inside, they saw lines on the walls that spun in a counterclockwise direction. Gernon's navigational instruments went haywire and the compass spun counterclockwise.

Gernon reported that he "realized that something very bizarre had happened. Instead of the clear blue sky that we expected at the end of the tunnel, everything appeared a dull, grayish white. Visibility appeared to be about two miles, but there was absolutely nothing to see - no ocean, no horizon, no sky, only a gray haze."

When Gernon contacted Miami Air Traffic Control to get radar identification, the controller said that there were no planes on radar between Miami, Bimini and Andros. After several minutes, Gernon heard the air traffic controller report that a plane had been spotted directly over Miami. Gernon didn't think he could possibly be over Miami Beach, because it usually took 75 minutes to get to Miami and only 47 minutes had passed. At this same time, the cloud tunnel began to peel away in what he described as ribbons of fog. The instruments began operating normally and Miami Beach was directly below them. This loss of time, confirmed by their watches and the plane's clock, made Gernon believe that the electronic fog had time travel qualities.

Gernon experienced the fog one more time in flight with his wife. Many other pilots have had similar experiences in the area. Gernon believes that powerful electromagnetic storms from within the Earth break through the surface and come into the atmosphere where they soon disappear, leaving electronic fog. According to Gernon, a Swedish scientist has found that magnetism is weaker in the triangle than anywhere else on Earth, which may be why the fog happens more there than anywhere else.

For more on this theory, listen to this Paranormal Podcast interview with Bruce Gernon. When Don Pelz of Indiana heard of Gernon's experience, he contacted him about his own. He had also seen the doughnut shaped clouds 10 years ago and was able to retrieve radar images of what Gernon calls a "time storm." You can view them at Pelz's Web site.

Compass Malfunctions

In almost every account of the mystery surrounding the Bermuda Triangle, you'll see reference to the fact that it is one of only two places on Earth (the other being the Devil's Sea off the coast of Japan) where a compass points to true north rather than magnetic north. Theorists say that this causes compasses to malfunction and ships and planes to get off-course.

A compass works because its magnetic needle is attracted by the magnetism of the Earth, which draws it to point to the constantly shifting Magnetic North Pole. The Geographic North Pole, on the other hand, is static and is located about 1200 miles north of the Magnetic Pole. The variation between the two readings is known as magnetic declination (or compass variation), which can change by as much as 20 degrees as you move across the globe.

The agonic line is an imaginary line where true north and magnetic north are in perfect alignment - there is no magnetic declination. At points west of the agonic line, a magnetic needle will point east of true north (positive declination). At points east of the agonic line, a magnetic needle will point west of true north (negative declination). Extended lines that mark the constant magnetic declination away from the agonic line are called isogonic lines.

In the early 18th century, Edmund Halley noticed that the agonic line was slowly moving westward. Since then, scientists have noted a westward drift of the agonic line with an average velocity of about 0.2 degrees per year. The drift is not equal in all places, however. It is stronger in the Atlantic Hemisphere than in the Pacific Hemisphere. Navigators must always compensate for magnetic declination when charting their courses.

While the agonic line once passed through the Bermuda Triangle, it now falls within the Gulf of Mexico, rendering claims that it can contribute to disappearances in the Triangle inaccurate. Calculation errors anywhere could cause a plane or ship to go off-course. This theory also assumes that experienced pilots and captains passing through the area were unaware of magnetic declination, which is unlikely.

Blue Holes
Blue holes are water-filled caves and cavities with blue coloration. These caves may be simply a hole in the ground in the interior of islands (inland blue holes) or holes in shallow waters on the banks (marine or ocean blue holes). British scuba diver Rob Palmer directed a blue holes research center in the Bahamas for a number of years. In July 1997, he failed to surface after a dive in the Red Sea and was presumed dead. Some think that the blue holes may be related to (or even formed by) micro-wormholes believed to exist in the area and might even be transit points for UFOs arriving here from other dimensions.

Plausible Theories

Most rational explanations for the incidents in the Bermuda Triangle, including the explanations given by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, include human error and environmental effects. The area is one of the most highly trafficked for amateur pilots and sailors, so more traffic leads to more accidents and disappearances.

Weather Patterns and Topography
The area is subject to violent and unexpected storms and weather changes. These short but intense storms can build up quickly, dissipate quickly, and go undetected by satellite surveillance. Waterspouts that could easily destroy a passing plane or ship are also not uncommon. A waterspout is simply a tornado at sea that pulls water from the ocean surface thousands of feet into the sky. Other possible environmental effects include underwater earthquakes, as scientists have found a great deal of seismic activity in the area. Scientists have also spotted freak waves up to 100 feet high.

The underwater topography of the area may also be a factor. It goes from a gently sloping continental shelf to an extremely deep drop-off. In fact, some of the deepest trenches in the world are found in the area of the Bermuda Triangle. Ships or planes that sink into these deep trenches will probably never be found.

The Gulf Stream, where the Triangle is located, is extremely swift and turbulent. It can pose extreme navigational challenges, especially for inexperienced sailors. The Gulf Stream has been reported to move faster than 5 mph in some areas - more than fast enough to throw sailors hundreds of miles off course if they don't compensate correctly for the current. It can also quickly erase any evidence of a disaster.

Methane Gas Hydrates
This theory appears to hold promise for at least some of the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle. Scientists at Cardiff University have discovered the presence of large concentrations of methane gas trapped in the ocean floor. This gas is due to dying and decomposing sea organisms. The sediment contains bacteria that produce methane, which accumulates as super concentrated methane ice, called gas hydrates. The layer of ice traps the methane gas, and scientists are studying it as a potential energy source.

Within seconds of a methane gas pocket rupturing, the gas surges up and erupts on the surface without warning. If a ship is in the area of the blowout, the water beneath it would suddenly become much less dense. The vessel could sink and sediment could quickly cover it as it settles onto the sea floor. Even planes flying overhead could catch fire during such a blowout. Although he doesn't agree with the methane hydrate theory as an explanation for the Bermuda Triangle, Bill Dillon, a research geologist with the United States Geological Survey said that, "On several occasions, oil drilling rigs have sunk as the result of [methane] gas escape."

Pirates
While historical pirates like Blackbeard or the fictional Captain Jack Sparrow of "Pirates of the Caribbean" may not be likely candidates for disappearances, modern pirates might be. In the 1970s and '80s, drug runners often pirated boats to smuggle drugs. This theory could also bear some truth during wartime. Check out How Pirates Work for more information about piracy and real-life pirates.

Although these theories (among others) probably account for disappearances in the area known as the Bermuda Triangle, many people still prefer to believe that aliens, electronic fog or another supernatural phenomenon must be the cause. As long as those theories exist, the Bermuda Triangle will remain a source of fascination and mystery.

Lee Ann Obringer

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