Happy Christmas!

... or Holidays .. or whatever it is you're into at this time of year.

BIGFOOT: The Return ......

Ok so its probably just a redneck returning to his trailer after a Halloween party.

A northern Minnesota man thinks he may have photographed Bigfoot with a motion-activated trail camera. Some are impressed by the photo, while others are less enthusiastic that it depicts a real Bigfoot.

Kim Kedrowski told the Bemidji Pioneer Press that he captured the image of what looks like a tall, upright, possibly hairy creature sauntering along a trail that winds through his hunting land just north of the small town of Remer, Minnesota.

Kedrowski said the photo was captured at 7:20 p.m. on Oct. 24, which was an overcast, rainy day. He said they checked with neighbors and friends, and none of them said they had been in the area at the time of the photo.

To get some expert advice, Kedrowski contacted the Minnesota Bigfoot Web site and spoke with Don Sherman and Bob Olson of the Northern Minnesota Bigfoot Research Team. Sherman and Olson are not biologists, but are long-time amateur Bigfoot enthusiasts - and they think the photo may be the real deal.

Sherman visited the site of the photo, and based on a measurement of a sapling seen in the photo, the creature appears to be about 7 feet tall. Sherman said he has made plaster casts of Bigfoot imprints in this neck of the woods in the past, although he did not make any casts in connection with the Kedrowski photo.

Casey Kedrowski, Kim's brother, said that he and his brother were the only two people who knew where the camera was located. They think that the possibility of someone hoaxing them is remote. They also say that neither of them is pulling a fast one on the other.

What I find interesting about this image is the complete lack of orbs ... clearly rednecks in cheap halloween costumes are a very effective ghost deterrant.

Voodoo Spy!

A British Army translator accused of spying for Iran was a voodoo priest who used black magic to protect the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan from the Taliban, a court heard.

Iranian-born Daniel James, 45, who was the personal interpreter to General David Richards, told the Old Bailey that he used pictures, dust, candles and seashells to cast spells protect his boss. He also said he did Tarot card readings for other personnel at the Allied HQ in Kabul to predict the future. James is alleged to have passed on secret information about Allied troop movements to the Iranians – who then passed it on to the Taliban. Giving evidence, James swore on the Bible but said he embraced all religions before telling the court how he converted to Voodoo while on his yearly trips to Cuba to research salsa in 2003. He claimed to be a priest who had recorded 10 Voodoo DVDs. James said: “I actually did black magic for General Richards praying to God to protect him from the Taliban. He explained: “Yoruba is the name of the religion. It is voodoo and black magic. I became the equivalent of a priest in the Church of England.” Corporal James told the court he ran salsa dance lessons from his Brighton club “Capital of Salsa” and dubbed himself “King of Salsa” before selling his businesses in 2005 just as he was called up to Afghanistan as a volunteer in the Territorial Army. As a dancer he regularly appeared on 1980s TV show ‘Solid Soul’ after an invitation by Jonathan Ross, who was then a television researcher, and he was a kick-boxing body builder who was one of Britain’s top three power lifters, the court heard. It is alleged James was a ‘Walter Mitty’ character who had “grandiose ideas about himself and his own self-importance”. He told the jury he agreed with allegations that when he translated for General Richards as he addressed a crowd of Afghan dignitaries he would sometimes act like a general. He said: “Well I think the audience did not understand General Richards. They were watching me and I thought I should act as a general because they are watching me. I was acting good and the public respected me.” Earlier the court heard from General Richards that often, as an quiet aside while on stage in front of an audience, he had to remind his corporal who in fact was the senior officer. James also told the court while out in Afghanistan he called himself General James after being promised promotion because his predecessor had the rank of acting Major. Before he had “could not have cared less” about his rank but was promised promotion to sergeant because it was thought to be more appropriate to his role as the general’s translator – although the promotion never materialised. It is alleged James “turned his back ” on his colleagues because he was “disenchanted” and “bitter” about the British Army because he thought it was racist for not promoting him and was a fantasist “Walter Mitty” character who revelled in the idea of being a spy. But a British Army Colonel known as ‘M’ who was Chief of Combined Intelligence told the court the implications of James’s betrayal was “extremely serious”. Assessing the alleged contact between James and an military assistant at the Iranian embassy in Kabul, he said the relationship was in its infancy but the potential damage was “immense” that could have driven a wedge between the British and its NATO allies. He said: “Information passed over time could help and assist a hostile state in its effort to conduct a tactical deployment that posed a threat to the lives of UK and NATO service personnel in Afghanistan and pose a similar threat to the interior national security of the UK.” James, of Cliff Road, Brighton, denies two breaches of the Official Secrets Act by collecting and passing on military secrets to a foreign power and wilful misconduct in public office. He was caught with two secret reports on NATO troop numbers and movements on a memory stick as he prepared to board an RAF plane back to Afghanistan along with pictures of RAF spy drones and a NATO aircraft manual, it was said. The trial continues.

MoD UFO Department Closes

The MoD department, which has dealt with more than 12,000 reports – including 135 last year – was used to assess threats posed by any Unidentified Flying Objects sightings throughout Britain.

Any reports made would now not be investigated or followed up as the hotline had been closed, a spokesman said.

UFO experts expressed anger at the decision.

MoD chiefs made the decision to close the £50,000 a year department, established in 1950, after deciding there was no benefit investigating sightings which were “an inappropriate use of defence resources”.

It comes after the team was moved from the MoD’s team, similar to the FBI team featured in the TV programme the X Files, was moved a year ago from the Whitehall Headquarters to the RAF Command in High Wycombe, Bucks.

After an application under the Freedom of Information Act, the MoD admitted that responding to every UFO sightings “diverts MoD resources from tasks that are relevant to Defence”.

No decision was announced and the disclosure was instead buried on its website earlier this month.

It said that in more than 50 years “no UFO report has revealed any evidence of a potential threat to the United Kingdom”.

After investigation, around 5 per cent of reports remain unexplained.

“The MOD has no opinion on the existence or otherwise of extra-terrestrial life,” the spokesman said.

“The MOD has no specific capability for identifying the nature of such sightings.

“Accordingly, and in order to make best use of Defence resources, we have decided that from the 1 December 2009 the dedicated UFO hotline answer-phone service and e-mail address will be withdrawn.”

He added: “MOD will no longer respond to reported UFO sightings or investigate them.”

Nick Pope, who ran the Ministry of Defence UFO project from 1991 to 1994, said it was “outrageous”.

“We’re leaving ourselves wide open to terrorist attacks,” he told The Sun.

The spokesman said the programme to release departmental files on UFO matters to the National Archive would continue.

Peter Jackson's Close Encounter

Seems that Sting has made it cool for celebs to come clean about their spectral sightings. Peter Jackson has outed himself as a believer telling Channel 4 about his experience with a ghostly woman with a screaming face.

In London for the premiere of The Lovely Bones – a film he has directed from Alice Sebold’s story in which a murdered teenage girl gives her viewpoint from heaven – Jackson said he did not know what a real soul was like.

But he told Britain’s Channel 4 TV that while he could not swear the spirit in the movie was 100 percent accurate, he had seen a real ghost.

“It was genuine,” said Jackson, who made a 1996 ghost movie, The Frighteners – co-written with his wife Fran Walsh – starring Michael J Fox.

His sighting was in an apartment he and his wife had in Wellington’s Courtney Place opposite the St James Theatre, when they first met 20 years ago.

“I woke up one morning and there was a figure in the room, she was very scary, she had a screaming face, very accusatory, she was a lady about 50 years old,” Jackson said.

“It was terrifying actually, a very scary image and she was at the end of the bed and she glided across the room and disappeared into the wall.

“I sat in bed and thought, have I really seen that?” said Jackson.

“Then Fran came in. I told her about it and the first thing she said was: ‘was it the woman with the screaming face?”‘ he said.

“Fran had seen the same woman in the same room about two years before.”

Jackson said that when the St James Theatre was being restored a few years ago, people talked about the legend of the woman who committed suicide after being booed off the stage after a bad show in vaudeville days.

“They say she manifests herself in the theatre with a screaming face. Sometimes she’s seen – the same ghost. She needs to learn to smile a little.”

So who'll be next to share?