Chernobyl - the very mention of this name brings up thoughts of the disaster that occured.  In my work outside of the paranormal, I have heard stories that are just horrible.  Stories of the Russian government paying people a lifetimes wages to go spend 10 minutes near the reactor throwing rocks on it trying to cover it up.  Little did those people know they would only be able to enjoy that money for a couple days as they recieved lethal doses of radiation.  Basically, they cooked their insides, like they were in a microwave.  Sad.

Looking back today, Chernobyl is a ghost town, litterally.  People claim seeing and even being touched by ghosts in some of the buildings.  Beyond the ghosts, there are stories of a winged creature being seen for days before the disaster.  Sounds awfully familiar to the Mothman of Point Pleasant, WV.  The Mothman appeared before the great bridge collapse in Galipolis, OH and Point Pleasant, WV.

In my research I found a well written blog about Chernobyl and the paranormal there.  I have included it in the read more button.

Aquatic Cryptids have been a fascination of mine since I was a young boy.  I love to swim and love everything about the water.  I even cried and made my parents send money to the 'Save the Whales' foundation after I saw one of their commercials on TV!

So today, I stumbled across an article that really grabbed my attention.  This article is from The Telegram in Newfoundland and written by Hans Rollman. It describes all the various sea monsters and aquatic cryptics that have been seen in the waters by Newfoundland and Labrador.

Enjoy!

"From a 25-foot shark crashing through a roof to Mongolia’s giant statue of Genghis Khan, the world’s weirdest monuments display local quirks."

From

"MEXICO CITY – Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly "running out" on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it's not the end of the world.

Or is it?

Definitely not, the Mayan Indian elder insists, 'I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff.'

From

"ROME – Scientists have reproduced the Shroud of Turin — revered as the cloth that covered Jesus in the tomb — and say the experiment proves the relic was man-made, a group of Italian debunkers claimed Monday.

The shroud bears the figure of a crucified man, complete with blood seeping out of nailed hands and feet, and believers say Christ's image was recorded on the linen fibers at the time of his resurrection.

Scientists have reproduced the shroud using materials and methods that were available in the 14th century, the Italian Committee for Checking Claims on the Paranormal said."

What do the late David Carradine, Ellen Degeneres, Keannu Reeves, Gary Busey, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Dan Akroyd, Matthew McConaughey and more have in common?

They're part of a growing list of Hollywood celebrities who are going "on the record" and speaking publicly about their brushes with the paranormal. Amazing stuff, considering how just a few years ago paranormal topics were taboo topics to discuss--especially if you were in the public eye.

My, things have changed!

So....inspired, no doubt, by the success of the new Bio Channel series, Celebrity Ghost Stories, here are more celebrity ghost stories by Yahoo to keep you awake at night...

One of the lesser known, amphibious cryptids of Ohio, is the Loveland Frogman.  This creature has a history of sightings dating back to 1955.  The most recent sighting was in 1988.

On March 3 1972, an anonymous police officer was driving on Riverside Road at around 1 am, when he saw what looked like a dog on the icy road. He pulled over, and shone his headlights on it. It suddenly stood up, jumped over the guardrail, and went down the embankment into the Miami River. The officer described the creature as being 3-4 feet tall, about 50-75 pounds, with leathery skin, and a frog or lizard-like face. He called the dispatcher and returned to the station. He and another officer returned to the scene later that night, where they saw scrape marks on the hill going into the river. No official report was filed.

Lake Erie is the sallowest of the 5 Great Lakes, yet it contains one of the least known Lake Monsters in the world.  Unless you grew up on the shores of Lake Erie, like I did, I doubt you heard much, if anything, about ‘Bessie’.  She is said to be a snake like creature, 30-40 feet in length, approximately a foot in diameter and grey/blue in color.   ‘Bessie’ is most often seen in the Western Basin and was first witnessed in 1817.

There are many skeptics around, they believe that ‘Bessie’ is large lake Sturgeon, which are common fish in Lake Erie.  The Sturgeon can reach sizes of 20 feet in length and over 200 pounds.  Many believers refute this, stating that what they saw was much larger than a sturgeon and looked like a sea serpent.

There have been many sightings of Bessie over the last few decades with some more sinister ‘attacks’ occurring in the 1990’s.

Here is a listing of some of the benign sightings of ‘Bessie’: