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I was just kind of bored and I thought it might be interesting to start this thread, so here we go. What do you guys feel are some of the greatest unsolved mysteries out there? I picked two of my favorite creepy ones. Any thoughts on these?
Dyatlov Pass Incident
Quote: The Dyatlov Pass incident refers to an event that resulted in the deaths of nine ski hikers in the northern Ural mountains on the night of February 2, 1959. It happened on the east shoulder of the mountain Kholat Syakhl (Холат Сяхл) (a Mansi name, meaning Mountain of the Dead). The mountain pass where the incident occurred has since been named Dyatlov Pass (Перевал Дятлова) after the group's leader, Igor Dyatlov (Игорь Дятлов).
The lack of eyewitnesses and subsequent investigations into the hikers' deaths have inspired much speculation. Investigators at the time determined that the hikers tore open their tent from within, departing barefoot in heavy snow. Though the corpses showed no signs of struggle, two victims had fractured skulls, two had broken ribs, and one was missing her tongue.[1] According to sources, four of the victims' clothing contained substantial levels of radiation. There is no mention of this in contemporary documentation; it only appears in later documents.[1] Soviet investigators determined only that "a compelling unknown force" had caused the deaths. Access to the area was barred for skiers and other adventurers for three years after the incident.[1] The chronology of the incident remains unclear due to the lack of survivors.[2][3]
Quote: The Beast of Gévaudan (French: La Bête du Gévaudan; IPA: [la bɜt dy ʒevɔdɑ̃], Occitan: La Bèstia de Gavaudan) is a name given to man-eating wolf-like animals alleged to have terrorized the former province of Gévaudan (modern day département of Lozère and part of Haute-Loire), in the Margeride Mountains in south-central France from 1764 to 1767 over an area stretching 90 by 80 kilometres (56 by 50 mi).[2] The beasts were consistently described by eyewitnesses as having formidable teeth and immense tails. Their fur had a reddish tinge, and was said to have emitted an unbearable odour. They killed their victims by tearing at their throats with their teeth. The number of victims differs according to source. De Beaufort (1987) estimated 210 attacks, resulting in 113 deaths and 49 injuries; 98 of the victims killed were partly eaten.[2] An enormous amount of manpower and resources was used in the hunting of the animals, including the army, conscripted civilians, several nobles, and a number of royal huntsmen.[2] All animals operated outside of ordinary wolf packs, though eyewitness accounts indicate that they sometimes were accompanied by a smaller female, which did not take part in the attacks. The story is a popular subject for cryptozoologists.
Quote:Richard H. Thompson, author of Wolf-Hunting in France in the Reign of Louis XV: The Beast of the Gévaudan, contended that there can be satisfactory explanations based on large wolves for all the Beast's depredations.Though wolves in the wild usually avoid contact with humans, they will attack livestock when their natural prey runs out. Conversely, the beasts themselves were said to have preferentially taken human victims, ignoring the livestock present in the area. Some experts, however, state that wolves at the time may have been more aggressive than their modern-day counterparts, saying that today's generation of shy wolves is the result of natural selection favoring animals which were less prone to attacking humans with firearms.In areas of the modern world where wolf attacks are still a regular occurrence, the afflicted communities are usually poverty-stricken with a general lack of predator control technology, mirroring the situation of the Gévaudanais of the 18th century. A Fennoscandian study on wolf attacks occurring in the 18th–19th centuries indicated that until the 20th century, wolf predation on humans was an occasional, but widespread feature of life in Europe. The study further showed that similarly to the Beast of Gévaudan, victims of wolf attacks were almost entirely children, and in the few cases when an adult was killed, it was almost always a woman.
Quote:The world is a magical place, full of mysteries science may never understand. It's also full of bullshit that people just make up to draw attention to themselves.
At the heart of pretty much every "paranormal" phenomenon you find some lonely, attention-seeking soul, or several of them, willing to put a spooky little twist on an otherwise boring story. But it usually doesn't take a whole lot of examination to find the truth.
Quote:Richard H. Thompson, author of Wolf-Hunting in France in the Reign of Louis XV: The Beast of the Gévaudan, contended that there can be satisfactory explanations based on large wolves for all the Beast's depredations.Though wolves in the wild usually avoid contact with humans, they will attack livestock when their natural prey runs out. Conversely, the beasts themselves were said to have preferentially taken human victims, ignoring the livestock present in the area. Some experts, however, state that wolves at the time may have been more aggressive than their modern-day counterparts, saying that today's generation of shy wolves is the result of natural selection favoring animals which were less prone to attacking humans with firearms.In areas of the modern world where wolf attacks are still a regular occurrence, the afflicted communities are usually poverty-stricken with a general lack of predator control technology, mirroring the situation of the Gévaudanais of the 18th century. A Fennoscandian study on wolf attacks occurring in the 18th–19th centuries indicated that until the 20th century, wolf predation on humans was an occasional, but widespread feature of life in Europe. The study further showed that similarly to the Beast of Gévaudan, victims of wolf attacks were almost entirely children, and in the few cases when an adult was killed, it was almost always a woman.
Quote:The world is a magical place, full of mysteries science may never understand. It's also full of bullshit that people just make up to draw attention to themselves.
At the heart of pretty much every "paranormal" phenomenon you find some lonely, attention-seeking soul, or several of them, willing to put a spooky little twist on an otherwise boring story. But it usually doesn't take a whole lot of examination to find the truth.
For instance...
#6.
The Dyatlov Pass Incident
Wolves were ruled out for the Gévaudan attacks a long time ago. Many of the victims were missing limbs and decapitated, all canines lack the bite force to do this. If it really was a natural animal it was more likely a long haired Hyena, although many of the details do not match up with a Hyena either considering several of the victims were sexually assaulted which is not consistent with an animal.
Not sure what your point about Dyatlov was, nobody knows (even the official Soviet report) why nine experienced skiers would leave their tent in the middle of the night into deadly temperatures. It's still a mystery. Thanks for the two cents though!
(July 19, 2011 at 6:13 pm)Paul the Human Wrote: D.B. Cooper is one of my favorite 'mysteries'. I don't know why.
The fact that not one of the ten thousand twenty dollar bills he extorted ever appeared in circulation sort of took the mystery out of what happened to him after he jumped.
(July 19, 2011 at 6:13 pm)Paul the Human Wrote: D.B. Cooper is one of my favorite 'mysteries'. I don't know why.
The fact that not one of the ten thousand twenty dollar bills he extorted ever appeared in circulation sort of took the mystery out of what happened to him after he jumped.
Quote: In February 1980, an eight-year-old boy named Brian Ingram, vacationing with his family on the Columbia River about 9 miles (15 km) downstream from Vancouver, Washington and 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Ariel, uncovered three packets of the ransom cash, significantly disintegrated but still bundled in rubber bands, as he raked the sandy riverbank to build a campfire.[68] FBI technicians confirmed that the money was indeed a portion of the ransom, two packets of 100 bills each and a third packet of 90, all arranged in the same order as when given to Cooper.[69][70]
The discovery launched multiple new rounds of conjecture, and ultimately raised many more questions than it answered.
From Wikipedia, not sure how they got buried there, could have been natural from the river.
Though the only reason it is a mystery is because people lied to cover their asses, but the Anastasia Romanov story is one that I like to read about. I also enjoy mysterious artifacts, such as the Dropa Stones and the Baghdad Battery.
