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The Most Unique Thing You've Ever Seen (Read 1297 times)
Rat Man
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The Most Unique Thing You've Ever Seen
Jul 30th, 2021 at 2:55pm
 
     I posted this once before but it was years ago so here we go.
      When I was two years old my older brother and sisters and I were on the front porch during the prelude to a thunderstorm.  We were counting the seconds from flash to boom to judge the distance of the lightning.  Six seconds equal about a mile. 
      Over the woods to the right something very odd appeared.  Being two I had no idea what it was and I doubt my older sibs did either.  The image is burned into my brain.  It looked like a slightly less bright version of the sun.  It was gently bouncing from treetop to treetop like a beach ball.  Then it got to an old, mostly dead Pine Tree directly across the street from our house.   KAAAAABBBLLLLLAAAAAAMMMMMMMM!!!!  It went off like an atom bomb, blowing the top of the tree to smoking splinters.  It was ungodly loud and sent us running for our lives to the other end of the house. 
     What we had just witnessed was Ball Lightning, an extremely rare phenomenon.  Though this is probably no longer the case due to cell phone cameras, for most of my life there were only two pictures of it in existence.  It can take on several different forms.  It has been known to bounce completely through someone's house.  I am one of very few people who have ever seen it. 
     Did you ever see something that probably no one else here did? 
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Morphy
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Re: The Most Unique Thing You've Ever Seen
Reply #1 - Jul 30th, 2021 at 6:26pm
 
Ive heard of the power of ball lightning but thats so crazy. You must have seen a really powerful one.

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Rat Man
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Re: The Most Unique Thing You've Ever Seen
Reply #2 - Jul 31st, 2021 at 9:29am
 
    It looked so peaceful and gentle just bouncing from treetop to treetop.  It sort of hypnotized us.  We were spellbound, watching this beautiful freak of nature.  The last thing we expected was for it to explode like Hiroshima not fifty yards from the house. It was quite shocking.
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Kick
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Re: The Most Unique Thing You've Ever Seen
Reply #3 - Aug 1st, 2021 at 4:38am
 
Rat Man wrote on Jul 31st, 2021 at 9:29am:
It was quite shocking.

Heh.
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You are a great guy Kick but also slightly scary at times. - Morphy
"Nothing matters, but it’s perhaps more comfortable to keep calm and not interfere with other people." - H.P. Lovecraft, in a letter to Frank Belknap Long, 7 October, 1923
 
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Curious Aardvark
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Re: The Most Unique Thing You've Ever Seen
Reply #4 - Aug 1st, 2021 at 8:46am
 
This happened a week or so ago.
Not sure if it’s unique but I’ve never heard of it before.

Was out with the dogs, and I thought phoebe had caught a rabbit. It was making a lot of noise, squealing. Unfortunately when she catches something she wont let you get near her and normally she kills things pretty quick by shaking them and breaking their necks.
Never actually draws blood.

Well this thing kept squealing so I went to see what was going on.

My first thought was : ‘she’s caught a raccoon’.
Which makes no sense. But in my defence I’d seen exactly as many live raccoons in the uk as I’d seen live badgers.

Yep she’d only gone and caught a live badger.
This was in broad daylight.
And badgers are famously nocturnal.

When I got there they were in a bit of a standoff.
She’d put it down in order to rearrange it for eating and it didn’t want to be eaten.
I took a couple steps towards it and it spun and hissed at me. So I don’t think it was fatally hurt.

I think it was just in shock. I went back to the same place a few days later and there was no sign and I couldn’t smell anything dead whistle

But yeah, in over 40 years of owning dogs and talking to dog owners I have never heard of a dog catching and carrying around a live badger. Until now !

Ball lightning is amazing stuff. Don’t think anyone’s ever managed to properly explain it.
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Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One  - works for me Smiley
 
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Slyngorm
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Re: The Most Unique Thing You've Ever Seen
Reply #5 - Aug 1st, 2021 at 4:50pm
 
I love ball lightings because it is one of the few phenomena that are considered both 'paranormal' but also worthy of legitimate study and are generally considered real even if exceptionally rare.





My father has connections so he took me and my friend backstage in a natural history museum.
So we walked through several football field sized halls filled with skeletons, preserved mammal skins, insects in boxes and reptiles in formaldehyde jars. Long story short: whenever you visit a museum remember that they have more than 100 times  the amount of fossils and animals in storage than on display.

Best thing: there was the skeleton of the whale featured in 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' on storage.
Wait what? In that book is described an event in the North Sea involving a whale. This was an actual event in which this whale was harpooned and caught. And then the whale's skeleton found its way into that exact room I later found myself in.
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Kick
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Re: The Most Unique Thing You've Ever Seen
Reply #6 - Aug 3rd, 2021 at 1:15pm
 
Curious Aardvark wrote on Aug 1st, 2021 at 8:46am:
Yep she’d only gone and caught a live badger.
This was in broad daylight.
And badgers are famously nocturnal.

My dad once ran over a badger in broad daylight... with his bicycle. He was peddling along a country road, taking in the scenery when he looked down at the path in front of him that he thought was empty, and saw a big hairy lump just as his tire hit it. It rolled off the path into a ditch so my dad stopped and looked to see what he hit. Same as with you, it turned, hissed at him then wandered off into the bushes.
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You are a great guy Kick but also slightly scary at times. - Morphy
"Nothing matters, but it’s perhaps more comfortable to keep calm and not interfere with other people." - H.P. Lovecraft, in a letter to Frank Belknap Long, 7 October, 1923
 
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Rat Man
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Re: The Most Unique Thing You've Ever Seen
Reply #7 - Aug 8th, 2021 at 3:22pm
 
Here is a link to some images of ball lightning.  The picture below is close to what we saw.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=pictures+of+ball+lightning&id=B9216EFB85217...
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Ball_001.jpg (67 KB | 20 )
Ball_001.jpg
 
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NooneOfConsequence
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Re: The Most Unique Thing You've Ever Seen
Reply #8 - Aug 16th, 2021 at 4:41pm
 
On the subject of unique electrical  weather phenomena, I remember in 3rd or 4th grace driving in the mountains outside of Santa Fe when a lightning storm rolled in. No ball lightning, but it struck in sheets… like giant webs of lightning that spanned half the horizon with each strike. I’ve never seen anything like it since.
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“My final hour is at hand. We face an enemy more numerous and cunning than the world has yet seen. Remember your training, and do not fear the hordes of Judas. I, without sin, shall cast the first stone. That will be your sign to attack! But you shall not fight this unholy enemy with stones. No! RAZOR GLANDES!  Aim for the eyes! May the Lord have mercy, for we shall show none!“  -Jesus the Noodler
 
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Curious Aardvark
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Re: The Most Unique Thing You've Ever Seen
Reply #9 - Sep 6th, 2021 at 11:03am
 
So while this isn't unique, it could well be the rarest thing I've ever handled.

Just been to a long term client of mine, who collects 45rpm singles.

In-between visits he'd acquired a copy of the very first 45 rpm single ever made.

It was by Eddie Arnold and the song was called texarkana baby.

And it's made from translucent green vinyl.

It's from the first pressing of the song.

I had a look and couldn't find one for sale on eBay - so pretty damn rare.

The truly bizarre thing is the record collectors app Mike has reckons it's only worth about £40

He got it in with some other records and paid a whopping 80p for it !

How can something that rare only be worth £40 ?

I've got rainbow albums supposedly worth more.
Crazy !

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Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One  - works for me Smiley
 
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