"BY DAVE STEPHENS""SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER""11:48 P.M. EDT, OCTOBER 2, 2011"SOUTH BEND - The zombie, smoking a cigarette by the conference center's front door, should have been a clue.The girl wearing fairy wings, or the guy walking around with photos of his "encounter," could have been another.But if there was any doubt Sunday that a person walking into the Hilton Garden Inn was about to experience something outside the realm of "normal" human experience, all he had to do was look for the sign.Michiana Paranormal Expo 2011.Para, the prefix, meaning "going beyond." Normal, meaning "conforming with the or constituting an accepted standard, model or pattern."In other words, an exposition for those seeking experiences beyond the accepted parameters of modern society, or modern science.Ghost hunters. Psychics. UFO investigators. Magicians."Paranormal is the new normal," said Chris Schultz, one of the expo's founders. "It's only becoming more popular."Schultz said the idea to start a local paranormal event came after traveling to similar events - some that attract thousands of visitors - across the country."We tried to bring the best part from each one to what we are doing here," Schultz said.And by doing so, also help show the local members of the paranormal community that they are not alone (not as in haunted by ghosts, but surrounded by like-minded people).For Erick Hardy, Michiana chapter director for the Indiana Ghost Trackers, the expo was a chance for him and other members to explain what they do and why."Our goal is to prove their existence," Hardy said, and members do so by using digital audio recorders to record the voices of ghosts in old buildings and cemeteries.Hardy said his chapter has about 52 members and meets monthly. He joined three years ago, but has been curious about ghosts and the paranormal for years.Its a common theme.Stewart Hill is the director of Indianas chapter of the Mutual UFO Network, a group that records and tracks reports of unidentified flying object activity.Hill, who said hes had a lifelong interest in aliens, said his group receives reports of more than 200 UFO sightings or experiences a year. Trained investigators within the organization are then sent to check out the claims.Nationally the cases keep going up, Hill said. It makes you wonder if theres something going on.But if something is going on, no one at Sundays event was admittedly 100 percent sure what.Aliens? Ghosts? Other world spirits?Ken Age, director of the SyFy networks Spooked, spoke at the expo about his ghost-hunting experience, much of which was documented on the TV show.But Age said he wanted to make it clear that no one really knows for sure if what they are finding is actually a ghost.Theres people who will passionately disagree with me, Age said, but what Im saying is that something is happening to them, we just dont know what it is for sure.That skepticism, Age said, is needed as the paranormal community grows and seeks larger legitimacy.Thirty years ago, if you said you saw a ghost, youd have guys in white suits asking you questions, Age said. Now, people are starting to take you seriously.Staff writer Dave Stephens:dstephens@sbtinfo.com574-235-6209Source article:http://www.southbendtribune.com/sbt-paranormal-is-the-new-normal-20111002,0,5722409.story
Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g STARS - British astronomers are releasing the first data from the largest and most sensitive survey of the heavens in infrared light to scientists across Europe. The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey has completed the first of seven years of data collection, studying objects that are too faint to see at visible wavelengths, such as very distant or very cool objects. New data on young galaxies is already challenging current thinking on galaxy formation, revealing galaxies that are massive at a much earlier stage of development than expected. These first science results already show how powerful the full survey will be at finding rare objects that hold vital clues to how stars and galaxies in our universe formed. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060721120535.htm.
g ABODES - The answer to the question about life on Mars may very well come from analyzing an unsuspecting source - the soil, specifically the icy layer of soil underneath the Red Planet's surface. By analyzing the properties of Mars' frozen layer of soil during NASA's next lander mission, scientists will be able to better understand and theorize about life on Mars. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060713090827.htm. For related story, see "Life on Mars? A Timeline of the Debate" at http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040123173004.po61yma6.html
g LIFE - For the first time scientists have observed in real-time evolutionary changes in one species driven by competition for resources from another. See http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060713 darwin finch.html.
g INTELLIGENCE - Without realizing it, people will perceive things according to how they want to see them, a new study suggests. See http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060714 see believe.html.
g MESSAGE - Some people mistakenly confuse a long search with a thorough one, and figure that the lack of a SETI detection indicates that we're alone in the galaxy. This, however, is nonsense. See http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti thursday 060720.html.
g COSMICUS - Space shuttle Atlantis will move closer to its first flight in almost four years when the orbiter is hauled into Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building at sunrise Monday. See http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts115/status.html.
g LEARNING - More than half a century of U.S. dominance in science and engineering may be slipping as America's share of graduates in these fields falls relative to Europe and developing nations such as China and India, a study says. See http://www./rednova.com/news/
science/168513/us losing lead in science and engineering/
index.html.
g IMAGINING - Could the legendary dragons of Pern from Anne McCaffrey's famous science fiction novels actually exist? Welcome to the theoretical science of dracogenetics. See http://www.geocities.com/jenaith/DNA1.html.
g AFTERMATH - Scientists should pay greater attention to discussing the social implications of discovering extraterrestrial life - even though many researchers shy away from the subject because they don't consider it "hard" science. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/article163.html.
