Posted in Science & Nature

Cattle Mutilation

For decades, there have been case reports by farmers who found mysteriously dead cattle with strange, surgically precise wounds. Strangely, these corpses were split open and most of their soft organs (e.g. eyes, tongues, intestine, genitals) had been removed. Even stranger, the corpses were completely drained of blood.

The mysterious, mutilated cattle corpses set off a diverse range of conspiracies of what could have caused such a bizarre phenomena. The most popular theories included: alien experimentation (explaining the surgical precision and lack of blood and organs), sacrifice by cults, vampires and the El Chupacabra (a mythological vampiric beast).

Cattle mutilation became so well-known that during the 70’s, it was properly investigated by the FBI. Of course, no evidence was found of aliens and vampires. As with most supernatural phenomena, cattle mutilation could be logically explained by science.

It was found that the cattle had simply died of natural causes, with no foul play involved (other than the occasional psychopaths attacking cattle). But how could natural death cause the surgical wounds, the missing organs and lack of blood? The answer is obvious when one thinks of what happens to animals after they die.

Scavengers such as foxes and buzzards often feast on decomposing corpses, cleanly removing the soft organs before they rot away (organs are the first to spoil). As scavengers usually bite into the corpses, this does not explain the clean wounds. This phenomena is due to insects also feasting on the corpse – a key part in putrefaction. Insects prefer softer tissue such as organs and ragged wounds, so after the insects are finished, wounds often look extremely clean. Also, putrefaction of tissue leads to massive gas production, causing bloating. Once this reaches a peak, the cattle corpse bursts like a balloon, causing clean tears in the abdomen. Lastly, the flies that were involved in cleaning away organs lay eggs, which hatch into maggots. Maggots immediately eat away the dead flesh and organs, even sucking up the blood that pooled at the bottom of the corpse. All of these factors combined results in what appears to be a mysterious alien bovine autopsy.

Although this may sound crazier than Chupacabras, the theory was actually tested in 1979 by a sheriff who kept receiving complaints about cattle mutilation. He took a dead cow, left it on a field and filmed it for 48 hours. The video clearly showed each step described above, proving that cattle mutilation was simply Mother Nature’s cruel, vicious way of returning a corpse back to the soil.

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Doorway Amnesia

Have you ever experienced the curious phenomenon where you walk into the kitchen and completely forget why you came there? Or why you stepped out of the house? Almost everyone is struck with this bizarre amnesia at some point in their lives. But why does it happen? Do Men in Black come in and wipe your memory because there was an alien in the room or something? The answer lies in the doors.

It has been scientifically proven that doorways have a magical property of causing memory loss. To be exact, doors do not cause amnesia, but the physical act of passing through a doorway causes the brain to lose memories. The reason for the phenomenon is this. The human brain stores information in a very unique way where it compartmentalises information by physical location. Because of this “filing system”, the thought “I really want cake from the kitchen” that you had in the living room is difficult to access when you are in the kitchen. By crossing a doorway, the brain recognises that the physical location has changed and opens a different “folder”, metaphorically speaking. This system allows for smooth mental functioning usually as it lessens the load on the brain, but also creates confusing situations where you just stand in front of the door, questioning whether you are losing your memory.

In an experiment in France, it was found that when students were told to memorise certain objects and then walk into another room, they had much worse recollection of the objects compared to the control group (students who walked the same distance but not through a door). It was even found that a person did not even have to physically walk through a door to lose their memory. When students were made to repeat the experiment in a virtual setting (i.e. moving a computer character through a door in a game), the same thing happened. The effect was so powerful that the researchers dubbed doorways event erasers.

Although it seems like an inconvenient system, the brain’s special way of compartmentalising information according to physical location can be used to harness the power of complete memory. This is done by using the method of loci, also called the memory palace. This is a mnemonic device first devised by ancient Romans to help memorise a large amount of information. To use the memory palace, you must first visualise a certain location – one that you are familiar enough with to recall with great detail. This may be your room, house, the street you live on, or even a fictional palace. The object of the memory palace is to convert a piece of information into an item which you can place in a certain location in the palace. For example, if you have to memorise a shopping list, you can conjure a mental shelf in your mental palace and put all the items in the shelf. To enhance this effect, make the image as bizarre and fancy as possible, as the mind is prone to remembering weird things more (e.g. a massive apple with eyes and a mouth is more memorable than a normal apple). Once your memory palace is complete, you can take a “mental walk” through the palace, go to the room where the memory you need is stored, and just browse the contents to recall the information. With practice and a vivid imagination, this is an infallible method of remembering anything you want, for as long as you want.

Posted in Philosophy

Aliens

People tend to ask “Do aliens exist?”, but a more interesting thought is “What if aliens do not exist?”.

If there are no aliens in this vast universe, then that indicates that we are the only form of intelligent of life. If so, are we not one of nature’s greatest creations and wouldn’t the destruction of such an achievement be foolish? Because if humanity was to become extinct, then that would result in the only species able to think of such a question ceasing to exist.
This theory can further be understood as saying that Earth is the only place in the universe where life can and does exist. Ergo, we (as possibly the last intelligent life) should protect the planet from destruction so that life can continue in the universe.

However, if aliens were to exist, it would be better to ignore them and not search for them. Many dream that they will be benevolent, bringing us advanced technology and knowledge, but in the history of mankind, there is rarely a situation where two worlds meet and the weaker is not looted, enslaved and destroyed.