Spectral Analysis, also known as Audio Spectrum Analysis, is a very powerful paranormal investigation tool that allows investigators to visually separate noise from sound and match voice samples in a manner similar to matching fingerprints. This eliminates the possibility that the recording is the voice of a team member, identifies what words are being spoken without hearing the file, and shows the pitch and frequency of specific portions of the audio file to determine if it falls in the human speech or hearing range.

Nick Reiter is a lifelong resident of northwest Ohio, currently living in Gibsonburg. His professional career in industrial technology and solar PV energy spans three decades. Currently, Nick carries the title of staff scientist for a solar R&D firm in Toledo, Ohio.

A lifelong interest in the unusual prompted Nick over the years to take on the role of researcher and author in a number of fields that could be considered “paranormal”. His primary interest from the 1980s until the late 90s was in claims of alien encounters and UFOs. However the high degree of paranormal activity in the lives of many UFO experiencers led Nick to consider that the phenomena – usually perceived as being distinct – may lie on a single experiential axis – an axis of consciousness and reality. Thus from about 1996 until 2004, Nick focused primarily on claims of poltergeists, hauntings, and spiritual encounters, in and around the Ohio area. Many valuable clues were gathered, and gaps in knowledge were filled in, however in time it became apparent that ghostly encounters – much like alien ones – were not what they seemed to be.

By about 2006, Nick had begun to focus once again on the matter of UFOs and non-human entity encounters, however now from a completely different perspective. Adding to this a more recent active interest in the psychological and cultural roles of magic, mysticism, secret societies, and occult history, for Nick the pieces of the puzzle finally began to fall into place. However the picture that is starting to resolve itself is not an easy one for many to swallow, nor is it necessarily a very attractive one in its implications for the role of human beings in their world and in the greater universe. However it is an enriched view, and it has incorporated the evidence for itself as a good hypothesis should. Nick currently is continuing field investigations to complete the hypothesis, but also has devoted a part of his time to helping those with paranormal problems, and remediating negative haunt or entity assault situations.

When not at his day job in the lab, or pondering the disturbing yet intoxicating new universe that both paranormal and ufological studies suggest, he tries to forget about life by gardening, riding a Harley, building fusion reactors in a jar, and talking to his cats and dog.

Nick is co-author of “The Bridges of Avalon: Science, Spirit, and the Quest for Unity” and maintains a website: www.theavalonfoundation.org , and has also been interviewed on Coast to Coast AM.

The sound analysis on this capture was performed by Trevor Reiter. Trevor has assisted with his father’s research as a technical consultant in audio analysis, acoustics, and computer science matters since 2001. He was awarded his Masters Degree in Computer Science with a minor in recording technology, in 2009. His interests range from recording electronics, to new concepts in computing, and into information theory. Like his father, he has a deep interest in Fortean phenomena and the role of religion and magic in sociology and cultural anthropology. He also owns his own mobile recording studio and works part time as a board engineer at a local radio station.

The Complete Sentence EVP “They’re Not Going Anywhere”

They’re Not Going Anywhere by joycedierschke

First you will hear the team chatting.  (These voices sound “off in the distance” because the team was on the lower level of the building while the digital voice recorder was recording on the upper level.) Then you will hear the EVP “They’re not going anywhere” which sounds loud and clear. There was nobody in the upper level of the museum when this EVP was captured.

This EVP  was captured at the Clement Railroad Hotel Museum, located in the Hotel Halbrook in historic downtown Dickson, Tennessee. This hotel was built in 1913 and is one of the few remaining examples of a railroad hotel in a small Tennessee town. The Museum features exhibits and programming involving the Civil War, railroading, and local and regional history as well as many artifacts and items that once belonged to Tennessee Governor Frank G. Clement and his family.  The museum also maintains the rooms where the Clements lived while managing the Hotel Halbrook, and contains exhibits featuring Governor Clement’s early years, campaigns, and accomplishments.

Click Here to Visit the Clement Railroad Hotel Museum Website

Our team was investigating this location to either validate or debunk some claims of paranormal activity by the museum staff. The investigation was held after hours with ten investigators present.  The Clement Railroad Hotel Museum is a two-story building.  At the time this EVP was captured, the entire team was taking a break on the bottom floor.  Joyce Dierschke, Investigator for Volunteer State Paranormal Research, decided to leave her digital voice recorder on upstairs in the spot where we had just completed an EVP session just to see what might be captured. Joyce discovered the voice days later while reviewing her recordings.

We know for sure that there was no one upstairs when this EVP was captured because everyone was present and accounted for during the break. Additionally, if there had been a person in that room we would have heard additional sounds like footsteps,  the floor creaking, or sounds of someone approaching the recorder.  (The floors in the museum are hardwood and make many loud creaking noises when someone is walking or moving around.)  There are no such sounds on the recording.

When organizing data from the investigation, Mike Sears, founder of Volunteer State Paranormal Research, found additional evidence in support of this EVP.  Jeremy Roberts, investigator for Volunteer State Paranormal Research,  left his digital voice recorder in the same area as Joyce’s.  There was no EVP or voice recorded on Jeremy’s digital voice recorder during that time period.  Also, there were two team Mel Meters set on “record” beside the digital voice recorders.  Both Mel Meters had recorded a 2.4 EMF spike during this time period, indicating an increase in electromagnetic frequency at this time.

Derrick Webster, the Operations Coordinator and Co-Curator of the WWII Exhibit at the Clement Railroad Hotel Museum, heard this same voice approximately a year ago when a bunco party was held at the museum. Derrick described the bunco party as “a very noisy affair, with a group of ladies socializing and having a really good time”.  Around ten o’clock in the evening, after the party had ended and the last of the ladies had left the building, he began securing the building and turning off all fo the lights. Finally, with only the light in his upstairs office remaining, Derrick sat down in his office to clear his head before the drive home.  It was then he heard a female voice speak out loud one distinct phrase: “I don’t believe I recognize him.” Then everything was silent again.  Derrick described the voice as “very southern…what I call trash southern… also sounded smokey like someone who smokes”. Derrick says that although he hasn’t heard that voice since, once of the docents has.  He also states “it was the clearest personal proof to me of the paranormal and I will never forget it.”

The Spectral Analysis by Nick and Trevor Reiter

The audio recording I received came in both a .wav and .mp3  format.  I chose to analyze the .wav file as it would have more audio data to process, being a lossless format.  It was recorded on a Coby CXR190-1G voice recorder. The recorder uses a propriety  digital audio ormat that is later converted to .wav upon uploading to a computer. The device has an effective  frequency range of 300-3,000 Hz.

The above image is a frequency plot for the area of interest when the words “I’m not going anywhere” are heard in the recording.  There is quite a bit of noise in the recording, but the shape of the spectrogram is in line with what would be expected of a strained human voice recorded on a device with the aforementioned frequency response. It is my guess that the choppy nature of the spectrogram is derived from the device’s propriety format conversion. The choppiness is evident throughout the whole clip.

When running the sound through a noise reduction system, the harmonic content of the area in question can be seen a little better, as shown below.

Again, this is what would be expected of a human voice speaking into a device with a frequency range of 300-3,000 Hz.

Conclusion:

Nothing would indicate to me that the contents of the file are the result of tampering.  There is a  large amount of ambient noise, and the frequency response of the device is very limited, but the recording would seem to be a legitimate recording of a voice of some kind.

In summary, we feel this is an amazing paranormal capture.  This EVP was captured on a digital voice recorder when there was nobody in the room to speak into the recorder. The voice sounds just like a phantom voice previously heard by two of the museum staff.  There was nobody in the room at the time of the capture; no sounds of footsteps, floor creaking, or sounds of someone approaching the recorder to speak into it.  A second digital voice recorder running in the same location at the same time has no voice recorded during the time period the EVP was captured. Two separate Mel Meters show EMF spikes of 2.4 during the time of the capture, indicating an increase in electromagnetic frequency during this time. Spectral analysis indicates the voice has the same harmonics as a human voice, and also that the sound files have not been altered. 

VISIT THE AVALON FOUNDATION

Many thanks to Nick and Trevor from both LuminEarth.com and Vounteer State Paranormal Research for your assistance in analyzing this data!

Visit Our Websites:

LUMINEARTH.COM

VOLUNTEER STATE PARANORMAL RESEARCH

Friend Us Up!

LuminEarth.com on Facebook

LuminEarth.com on Twitter

Luminearth.com on YouTube

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Volunteer State Paranormal Research on YouTube

The Metro Council hearing on the Proposal for Backyard Poultry Bill is TODAY.

Backyard poultry is a big part of self-reliant food production and urban sustainability. This very important to residents and their families!!

Please send a short email note to the Metro Council representative in your district AND to all Council at Large members before 4:00 PM on Tuesday, January 3 (Council meeting and second hearing about backyard hen ordinance begins at 6:00 PM).

Write in SUBJECT line: Vote YES for backyard hen ordinance, please!

Include your full name and street address at the end of your note otherwise, your email will not be counted.

To determine which District you are in and who your Councilmember is, click here:

http://www.nashville.gov/council/districts/districts.asp

Metro Councilmembers at Large, 2012

Megan Barry  megan.barry@nashville.gov

Tim Garrett tim.garrett@nashville.gov

Jerry Maynard jerry.maynard@nashville.gov

Ronnie Steine ronnie.steine@nashville.gov

Charlie Tygard charlie.tygard@nashville.gov

Please forward this request to others, with encouragement to write supportive emails.

Spectral Analysis, also known as Audio Spectrum Analysis, is a very powerful paranormal investigation tool that allows investigators to visually separate noise from sound and match voice samples in a manner similar to matching fingerprints. This eliminates the possibility that the recording is the voice of a team member, identifies what words are being spoken without hearing the file, and shows the pitch and frequency of specific portions of the audio file to determine if it falls in the human speech or hearing range.

Nick Reiter is a lifelong resident of northwest Ohio, currently living in Gibsonburg. His professional career in industrial technology and solar PV energy spans three decades. Currently, Nick carries the title of staff scientist for a solar R&D firm in Toledo, Ohio.

A lifelong interest in the unusual prompted Nick over the years to take on the role of researcher and author in a number of fields that could be considered “paranormal”. His primary interest from the 1980s until the late 90s was in claims of alien encounters and UFOs. However the high degree of paranormal activity in the lives of many UFO experiencers led Nick to consider that the phenomena – usually perceived as being distinct – may lie on a single experiential axis – an axis of consciousness and reality. Thus from about 1996 until 2004, Nick focused primarily on claims of poltergeists, hauntings, and spiritual encounters, in and around the Ohio area. Many valuable clues were gathered, and gaps in knowledge were filled in, however in time it became apparent that ghostly encounters – much like alien ones – were not what they seemed to be.

By about 2006, Nick had begun to focus once again on the matter of UFOs and non-human entity encounters, however now from a completely different perspective. Adding to this a more recent active interest in the psychological and cultural roles of magic, mysticism, secret societies, and occult history, for Nick the pieces of the puzzle finally began to fall into place. However the picture that is starting to resolve itself is not an easy one for many to swallow, nor is it necessarily a very attractive one in its implications for the role of human beings in their world and in the greater universe. However it is an enriched view, and it has incorporated the evidence for itself as a good hypothesis should. Nick currently is continuing field investigations to complete the hypothesis, but also has devoted a part of his time to helping those with paranormal problems, and remediating negative haunt or entity assault situations.

When not at his day job in the lab, or pondering the disturbing yet intoxicating new universe that both paranormal and ufological studies suggest, he tries to forget about life by gardening, riding a Harley, building fusion reactors in a jar, and talking to his cats and dog.

Nick is co-author of “The Bridges of Avalon: Science, Spirit, and the Quest for Unity” and maintains a website: www.theavalonfoundation.org , and has also been interviewed on Coast to Coast AM.

The sound analysis on this capture was performed by Trevor Reiter. Trevor has assisted with his father’s research as a technical consultant in audio analysis, acoustics, and computer science matters since 2001. He was awarded his Masters Degree in Computer Science with a minor in recording technology, in 2009. His interests range from recording electronics, to new concepts in computing, and into information theory. Like his father, he has a deep interest in Fortean phenomena and the role of religion and magic in sociology and cultural anthropology. He also owns his own mobile recording studio and works part time as a board engineer at a local radio station.

The Complete Sentence EVP “Ghosts Are Supposed to Like Dogs”

Paranormal Investigating: Complete Sentence EVP “Ghosts Are Supposed to Like Dogs” by Becki Baumgartner

This has to be my best EVP capture to date.This was captured on March 5, 2010 during the day at a slave cemetery in a well-known park in the Middle Tennessee area. I was with fellow investigator, Joyce Dierschke. This was not an official investigation, but a “spur of the moment” idea to grab our recorders and check out the cemetery after being confidentially informed of some happenings at this cemetery. (Because it is confidential, I can not disclose the name of the park or the cemetery.) The only people in the cemetery at the time of the recording were Joyce, myself, and her dog, Katie. When this spirit voice was captured, we hadn’t even really started the EVP session yet. We were in the process of getting the recorders on and finding where we wanted to be seated.

When listening to this clip, first you will hear some leaves rustling and me saying “then all the cars came”. Then you will hear what to me sounds like a young boy’s a voice say “Hi Katie! Hello.” After that you will hear me say “Ghosts are supposed to like dogs”, (Joyce and I had previously been talking about contamination, and how Katie walking around in the leaves might make too much noise for us to obtain good recordings.) and then the same young boy’s voice repeat my entire sentence, word for word… “Ghosts are supposed to like dogs.” followed by Joyce talking about high frequency energy and the sounds of walking in leaves.

This EVP is just amazing to me for several reasons. First of all the spirit voice is very plain and clear, and you can tell it intelligent because the words directly pertain to the situation at hand. Also, the voice is clearly different from my voice and Joyce’s voice–combined with the fact that there were no other people present, we know that it cannot be contamination. Also, I thought it was very interesting that the spirit chose to talk to the dog, Katie, and seemed to speak her name to get her attention. To me this voice sounded like a little boy, and this is just what a live little boy would do to get a dog’s attention.

The Spectral Analysis by Nick Reiter and Trevor Reiter

The audio recording which was received came in the format of a 32-bit Wav file, with a 32000Hz sampling rate.  The recording was done on an Olympus WS-100 sound recorder.  It is unknown which mode the recorder was on, but I would estimate that it was on SP quality mode due to the sharp decline in frequency response of the clip above 4,000 Hz.  The Olympus-100 recorder on SP mode has a frequency response of about 100-5,000Hz.

Figure 1 – Frequency Spectrum of Entire Clip

Note that because of the 32,000Hz sampling rate, the highest frequency possible in the recording is 16,000Hz.

There are five sections of spoken audio in the clip.  Three of them are distinctly human, and there are two areas of purported EVP activity.  The anomalous areas in question seem to be mimicking the words said to be the human voices.  What follows is a frequency analysis of each of these five sections.

The first clip shows clearly human voices.  You can plainly see the harmonic content of the voices in the stacked wavy lines of frequency.  There is a distinct noise floor from 0 to about 200Hz, which is the grainy portion at the bottom of the spectrograph.

The next portion, in the white circle, is the purported EVP response.  At the far right of the spectrogram, I have included a part of the second section of human speech for comparison.  There are two things worth noting.  One is that the “EVP response” does not share the same shape as the original human “call,” this would indicate that the response is not copy pasted-duplicate of the original “call.”  Secondly, the harmonic content is significantly less than would be in a regular human voice.  There only seems to be a fundamental frequency and one harmonic in the spectral content of the first anomalous section.

However, because it is known the file was edited from its original format, it still would be possible to distort the spectral and temporal content to achieve a similar result.  If, however, it is proven that the “EVP” response was in the unedited version of the file, then this would be evidence that whatever made the anomalous portion of the audio was of a different source than the original voices.

The next section is again plainly human voices.  We can see the natural harmonic content of the voices as we did in the first spectrograph image.  Of note, on the far right of the spectrograph, we see that the noise floor drops off.  This is highly unlikely in a natural scenario, and is most probably evidence of audio compression or equalization of the file.

This is a spectrograph of the fourth section, and the second anomalous section.  Here we are seeing more harmonic content in comparison to the first anomalous section, but still much less than would be expected from a normal human voice.  On the far right of the spectrograph, I have included part of the next human voice section as comparison to the anomalous section.  Of a more drastic note, we see that the noise floor completely drops for this section.  Again, this is extremely unlikely in a natural situation, and points to editing of the original sound file.  A compression algorithm may have released and lowered the noise floor, or there may have been equalization to take out the noise floor entirely.

The final section is the return of the human voices and the noise floor.

Conclusions:

It does stand to be said that nothing in the audio is beyond the ability to be manufactured by a skilled audio engineer.  One could mimic the effects of the anomalous sections by copying the human parts, and applying spectral and temporal processing; perhaps a combination of time stretching and vocoder processing.

It is impossible to prove the existence of a sound source beyond the original people involved in the recording.  This is because the change in file formats, and the disappearance of the noise floor, allow for the possibility that the anomalous sections were added to the recording after the fact.  However, if it can be proven that the anomalous sections of the recording were in place pre-editing, then the content of the audio would then indicate that the anomalous sections did indeed come from a different source than the human voices.

The simplified explanation, as Nick related it to me, is this as follows.

The primary question of Trevor’s was whether or not any equalizing or tweaking was done to bring out (enhance for clarity) the EVP portions of the clip, before or during conversion to a .wav file.  Essentially two odd features are seen with both of the EVP sections of the recording.  One is that the EVP voice has a definite lack of the rich harmonics that any normal human voice has.  It seems to be pure tone, with maybe one or two harmonics at most.  Secondly, during the periods of the EVP voice, there is a reduction in the “noise floor” or low frequency background. On this second point, we debated what could have caused it.  If someone had fabricated the clip from the get go, it might be an indicator of that. However we know from your testimony that this was not the case.  As Trevor said, anything can be recreated in a studio, but it would take a lot of time, skill, and bother to do this.  The more likely possibility is that the incoming signal of the EVP was low enough in magnitude, that some of the filtering circuitry or compression circuitry in the recorder didn’t handle the signal during that time in the same way as it did during the times you are speaking. The most important feature is the first of what I mentioned above.  The EVP voice lacks harmonics.  Thus it is very unlikely it is a human voice. Trevor told me that in some ways, it reminded him of Vo-coder modulation.  Way back in WWII, vocoder was used or experimented with to save bandwidth in military transmission.  It was a very early fore-runner of Autotune.  Vocoder modulation stripped voices down to just a few harmonics for easier transmission on a narrower band.  It literally produced a “machine” or robot type voice.  Not saying that some time traveller was using a vocoder of course – but just to the extent that the voice by lack of its harmonics, seems almost synthetic or machine-generated.  It is not like a human larynx, even if it is meant to sound like one.

Unfortunately for me, this is the only copy of the clip I have.  I had a computer crash shortly after obtaining this EVP, and lost the original unedited version before I had transferred it to my backup drive. I think I may have edited this clip to bring out the clarity of the EVP.  I use WavePad Sound Editor for my EVP analysis, and often use the “High-Pass Filter” and “Noise Reduction” functions, which probably would have caused the reduction in the “noise floor” or “low frequency background” that Trevor had mentioned.  However, I can attest to the fact… as can fellow investigator Joyce Dierschke, that the clip was not fabricated from the beginning. Knowing that, and knowing that the spectral analysis shows the voice lacking the harmonics necessary to be of human origin…  is validation enough for me, in my ongoing investigation and research… that yes… this is unexplained paranormal phenomena.

VISIT THE AVALON FOUNDATION

Many thanks to Nick and Trevor from both LuminEarth.com and Vounteer State Paranormal Research for your assistance in analyzing this data!

Visit Our Websites:

LUMINEARTH.COM

VOLUNTEER STATE PARANORMAL RESEARCH

Friend Us Up!

LuminEarth.com on Facebook

LuminEarth.com on Twitter

Luminearth.com on YouTube

Volunteer State Paranormal Research on Facebook

Volunteer State Paranormal Research on YouTube

Becki Baumgartner on Facebook

Spectral Analysis, also known as Audio Spectrum Analysis, is a very powerful paranormal investigation tool that allows investigators to visually separate noise from sound and match voice samples in a manner similar to matching fingerprints.  This eliminates the possibility that the recording is the voice of a team member, identifies what words are being spoken without hearing the file, and shows the pitch and frequency of specific portions of the audio file to determine if it falls in the human speech or hearing range.

Nick Reiter is a lifelong resident of northwest Ohio, currently living in Gibsonburg.  His professional career in industrial technology and solar PV energy spans three decades.  Currently, Nick carries the title of staff scientist for a solar R&D firm in Toledo, Ohio.

A lifelong interest in the unusual prompted Nick over the years to take on the role of researcher and author in a number of fields that could be considered “paranormal”.  His primary interest from the 1980s until the late 90s was in claims of alien encounters and UFOs.  However the high degree of paranormal activity in the lives of many UFO experiencers led Nick to consider that the phenomena – usually perceived as being distinct – may lie on a single experiential axis – an axis of consciousness and reality.  Thus from about 1996 until 2004, Nick focused primarily on claims of poltergeists, hauntings, and spiritual encounters, in and around the Ohio area.  Many valuable clues were gathered, and gaps in knowledge were filled in, however in time it became apparent that ghostly encounters – much like alien ones – were not what
they seemed to be.

By about 2006, Nick had begun to focus once again on the matter of UFOs and non-human entity encounters, however now from a completely different perspective.  Adding to this a more recent active interest in the psychological and cultural roles of magic, mysticism, secret societies, and occult history, for Nick the pieces of the puzzle finally began to fall into place.  However the picture that is starting to resolve itself is not an easy one for many to swallow, nor is it necessarily a very attractive one in its implications for the role of human beings in their world and in the greater universe.  However it is an enriched view, and it has incorporated the evidence for itself as a good hypothesis should.  Nick currently is continuing field investigations to complete the hypothesis, but also has devoted a part of his time to helping those with paranormal problems, and remediating negative haunt or entity assault situations.

When not at his day job in the lab, or pondering the disturbing yet intoxicating new universe that both paranormal and ufological studies suggest, he tries to forget about life by gardening, riding a Harley, building fusion reactors in a jar, and talking to his cats and dog.

Nick is co-author of “The Bridges of Avalon: Science, Spirit, and the Quest for Unity” and maintains a website: www.theavalonfoundation.org , and has also been interviewed on Coast to Coast AM.

The sound analysis on this capture was performed by Trevor Reiter. Trevor has assisted with his father’s research as a technical consultant in audio analysis, acoustics, and computer science matters since 2001.  He was awarded his Masters Degree in Computer Science with a minor in recording technology, in 2009.  His interests range from recording electronics, to new concepts in computing, and into information theory.  Like his father, he has a deep interest in Fortean phenomena and the role of religion and magic in sociology and cultural anthropology. He also owns his own mobile recording studio and works part time as a board engineer at a local radio station.

The “My Name is Sunshine” Full Sentence Digital Recorder Capture of Frank’s Box Hack Reply

My Name is Sunshine by Becki Baumgartner

First you will hear Mike Sears, founder of Volunteer State Paranormal Research, ask “Can you tell us your name?” Then you’ll hear a voice saying “My name is Sunshine”. We think this is a slave girl.

I thought this particular capture was quite amazing for a few reasons. First, the reply repeats the question and then provides the answer. Secondly, the entire team was sitting in on the session, and none of us audibly heard the reply with “our naked ears”. It wasn’t until later, analyzing the session slowly on the computer, that I heard the response. Another team member, Joyce Dierschke, also captured the same reply on her recorder, which is a different model than mine.

The Spectral Analysis by Nick Reiter and Trevor Reiter

This audio recording was received in a .wav format, and was recorded on an Olympus-100 recorder.  The device has an effective frequency response of 100-5,000 Hz.  The device inherently records to a lossy wma format, which was then converted to a lossless .wav format.  In the recording, a male and female voice are hear, and there is the sound of a device called a “Frank’s Box.”  The Frank’s Box is heard from an external speaker.

The large vertical geometry in the spectrogram is from the Frank’s Box operation.  Below, I’ve identified the areas of human voice in white, and the area of a voice saying “My name is Sunshine” in purple.

What can be seen here is that the two portions circled in white have frequency content around 300 Hz, which is what would be expected from a natural human voice.  However, the “EVP” voice, in purple, does not seem to have any frequency content below 500 Hz.  More so, the speaker on the Frank’s Box has a limited frequency response, which looks to be around 500-2,500 Hz.  The “EVP” voice seems to be contained in this spectrum as well, which would indicate to me that the voice is logically coming from the Frank’s box. The harmonic content, albeit being limited by the frequency range of the speaker on the Frank’s Box, would seem to be in line with a human voice.

Conclusion:

The audio sources in the recording seem to be two people and the Frank’s Box device.  The Frank’s Box device, because of its limited frequency response, seems to be the origination of the voice saying “My name is Sunshine.”

The simplified explanation, as Nick related it to me, is this as follows. The audio from the Franks Box has a characteristic distortion, because it is being sent to a small speaker, and then picked up by  the recorder.  Mike’s voice has a typical human set of harmonics, as you might guess.  However “Sunshine’s” voice has the same distortion pattern as the rest of the Franks Box garble afterward.  This suggests that it DID come over the Franks Box speaker. Although, for some unusual reason the statement was not heard by the listeners at the time.  Trevor suggested that one possible explanation is that it follows so quickly after the Mike’s question, that it literally could have overlapped in the listeners’ perception.  Or some more unusual property could have been at work. Regardless, though,  the “My name is Sunshine” audio pattern looks identical to the “Frank’s Box” audio pattern.

VISIT THE AVALON FOUNDATION

Many thanks to Nick and Trevor from both LuminEarth.com and Vounteer State Paranormal Research for your assistance in analyzing this data!

Visit Our Websites:

LUMINEARTH.COM

VOLUNTEER STATE PARANORMAL RESEARCH

Friend Us Up!

LuminEarth.com on Facebook

LuminEarth.com on Twitter

Luminearth.com on YouTube

Volunteer State Paranormal Research on Facebook

Volunteer State Paranormal Research on YouTube

Becki Baumgartner on Facebook

by Pam Jones, from Transition Nashville

What could be more green than a pet that makes you breakfast in your back yard?

If you live in Davidson County and support backyard chickens, please send a short email note to your Metro Council representative AND to all Council at Large members – between December 26 and 30th

Be sure to put in the SUBJECT line “Vote YES for backyard hen ordinance, please!”·

Include your full name and street address at the end of your note – otherwise, your email will not be counted.

To determine which Council District you are in and who your Councilmember is, click here: http://www.nashville.gov/council/districts/districts.asp

To get email updates about this process, please email ucanhens@gmail.com

ALSO — There is a

PUBLIC FORUM
ABOUT DOMESTICATED HENS

Monday, December
12, 6:30-7:30 pm

Vanderbilt
University, Wilson 115

Council members, representatives of Metro Health Dept. and Codes Administrators., and grassroots backyard hen advocates will discuss the bill allowing residents to raise hens in their backyards. Ask others to attend! See more information on the Urban Chicken Advocates of Nashville (UCAN) Facebook page or contact ucanhens@gmail.com. See Nashville backyard chicken ordinance NO.BL2011-47.

Panlelists

• Councilwoman KAREN BENNETT – facilitating
• TOM SHARP, Policy Driector, Metro Nashville Health
  Dept
• BILL PENN, Assistant Director, Metro Codes
  Department
• MARY PAT BOATFIELD, UCAN (Urban Chicken Advocates of
  Nashville)
• Nashville Food Policy Council Representative

If you need more options, click here to browse even more Nature Field Guides.

Nearly tripped over this one in the park the other day! The Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) is the state reptile for Tennessee and North Carolina.

Here’s some more about this little guy (or girl?):

Turtles are able to care for themselves from birth. Box turtles often crawl onto roads on rainy mornings in search of food. Drive slowly and watch out for them, especially around curves. If you see a turtle in the road and can safely stop to help, be careful – ANY turtle can bite you and might if frightened or hurt. Pick up the turtle by firmly grasping the sides of the shell with the tail towards you. NEVER lift a turtle by the tail as this could cause spinal damage.

The Eastern Box Turtle like the one pictured, has a lifespan between 30 to 60 years and can grow to be about 6 inches in length. The box turtle will never venture far from its birth home so if you find one on the road just move it out of harms way don’t take it home or anywhere else as that will mean certain death. P.S.: In Tennessee it is illegal to keep any animal taken from the wild as a pet.

Did You Know?

Box Turtles are the most common terrestrial turtle in the eastern United States. A key characteristic of box turtles is their hinged plastron (bottom of the shell) that can be shut completely to exclude predators. Although mud, musk, and blandings turtles also posses hinged shells, they cannot be closed completely. Superficially, box turtles resemble tortoises but they are actually more closely related to many aquatic turtles and belong to the same family as spotted, bog, chicken, map, and painted turtles, as well as sliders, cooters, and diamondback terrapins. Although this subspecies is highly variable in coloration, it is often more brightly colored than the other subspecies and almost always has four claws on the hind feet.

There are 2 species of Box turtles in the United States:

• The Eastern Box turtle – which ranges from Texas throughout the southeast and north to Michigan and southern Massachusetts, and,
• The Western box turtle (Terrapene ornata) – which ranges west of the Mississippi to Colorado and New Mexico. The western box turtle is superficially similar to the eastern box turtle but is typically smaller and has a shell marked with radiating yellow lines.

The Amazing Box Turtle

Eastern Box turtles are amazingly versatile animals and inhabit a wide variety of habitats from wooded swamps to dry, grassy fields. Although these turtles can live in a variety of different habitats, they are most abundant and healthy in moist forested areas with plenty of underbrush (that’s where I spotted this one!). Although not aquatic, box turtles will often venture into shallow water at the edge of ponds or streams or in puddles. In cold climates they hibernate through the winter in loose soil at a depth of up to two feet.

Box turtles are omnivores in the broadest sense of the word. They will eat almost anything, animal or plant, that they can fit in their mouth. Intriguingly, it is thought that young box turtles are primarily carnivorous and that as they grow their diet shifts more and more towards plant material. Favorite foods include almost any insect (although they seem to particularly relish worms and slugs), any fruit or berry, mushrooms, a variety of vegetable matter, and even carrion. Interestingly, box turtles are even able to eat many mushrooms that are toxic to humans.

Endangered?

Turtle populations are in serious decline throughout the world due to loss of habitat and the pet trade. Please don’t take one home, let these turtles live out their natural lives in their natural habitat.

Sources:

Davidson College, Biology Department, Davidson, NC, http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/midorcas/research/Contribute/box%20turtle/boxinfo.htm, Accessed November 21, 2011.

Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Reptiles & Amphibians, Facts, Fact Sheets, http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/ReptilesAmphibians/Facts/FactSheets/Easternboxturtle.cfm, Accessed November 21, 2011.

Merlin posing for the camera.

Seeing wildlife here in Middle Tennessee is easy as a walk in the park…literally!

I spotted this Merlin after he swooped down in front of me twice while hiking in Nashville. I caught up to him perched on this branch.

Now just let me say that I believe this to be a Merlin. I’ve found after doing some research that truly accurate bird identification is hard, if not impossible.

There are so many varieties of falcon, of which this Merlin (I think) is one. And within his own family, more variations exist. But I’m pretty sure he’s a Merlin because he fits the main criteria I found which includes:

• Small falcon lacking the strong facial markings of other falcons.
• Short, pointed wings, a long, banded tail, and brown streaking on the chest and belly.
• Back is solid gray in adults and brown in first-year birds.
• Females are noticeably larger than males (I admit, this could be a female).

My research also indicated that this is a rare bird to spot in this part of the country. In fact, I probably caught this one in during his migration. Merlins may stick around Nashville during the winter like a lot of other northern birds, but we can expect him to be on his way by April. Nashville and Middle Tennessee seem a natural winter home for Merlins as their main diet is other, smaller birds, which we tend to have a lot of here. Merlins actually catch their prey in flight! I’d like to see that.

The majestic, petite, Merlin.

But if the Merlin is a bit rare here, he’s not in other parts of the country. He’s not endangered, but like most birds his habitat is being destroyed pretty rapidly, and pollution is another concern of course. Both of these dangers puts all wildlife in peril.

Interesting facts about Merlins:

• In medieval Europe, Merlins were popular in falconry. Because of their smaller size they were often referred to as “lady’s hawk” – and was indeed popular with women falconers including Catherine the Great and Mary Queen of Scots.
• Today, they are still occasionally trained by falconers for hunting smaller birds, but due to conservation restrictions this is not very common any more.
• Merlins do not build a nest, but instead refurbish old nests of other raptors or crows.
• A group of merlins has many collective nouns, including a “brace”, “leash”, and “illusion” of merlins.

Merlins are in the hawk family, but less hawk-like than most others of the family. Some call Merlins “pigeon hawks” because it is said they resemble a pigeon in flight. Perhaps, but seeing a Merlin in person I doubt anyone would mistake this majestic – if petite - falcon for a pigeon!

Sources:
TennesseeWatchableWildlife.org Birds, Tennessee’s Birds, “Merlin”, Accessed November 2, 2011
EnWikipedia.org, “Merlin (bird)”, Accessed November 2, 2011
Identify.WhatBird.com, Field Guide to Birds of North America, “Merlin”, Accessed November 2, 2011

Careful! Watch out for Walking Sticks on your next hike.

I almost stepped on this one before realizing that not only was it not a twig, it was alive and moving!

The picture is not great, you can see better ones on the web for sure, its the best my camera phone can do right now! I spotted this little guy while hiking in Nashville, TN.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw what I thought at first was a spider of some kind, but as I focused on it I saw it was a walking stick insect. This is the first one I’ve ever seen in real life, so I thought it merited a spot in our “Amazing Creatures” section.

Here’s some general info on Walking Sticks:

• Resembles the twigs among which it lives, providing it with one of the most efficient natural camouflages on Earth.
• Along with the leaf insect, it comprises the Phasmida order which indcludes about 3,000 species.
• Also called “stick insect.”

Highlighted version - Next time I'll bring a better camera!

• Ranges in size from half-inch to 13-inch (Phobaeticus kirbyi of Borneo). (Our specimen was about 1.5 inches)
• Females are normally larger than males.
• Many stick insects have wings, some have spines and tubercles.
• Found predominantly in the tropics and subtropics—although several species live in temperate regions.
• Natural habitat is forests and grasslands.
• Natural food sources is leaves.
• Normally nocturnal, they spend much of their day motionless, hidden under plants – although the one I saw was sunning itself…

The pet trade presents a potential threat to walking sticks due to the popular practice of framing their carcasses – similar to butterflies. So please don’t collect them – just take home a picture or two.

Source: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/stick-insect/, “Stick Insect Phasmida”, Accessed November 1, 2011

A Coneflower planted in a Nashville Rain Garden, Nashville, TN

Low maintanence/No maintenance, sustainable, easy to install, beautiful solution to water pollution.

Rain gardens are gaining in popularity as a sustainable way to beautifully landscape property while helping to reduce water pollution. Raingardens are so useful in this way that many municipalities are adopting them community, town and citywide – some even providing plans and plants to people and organizations interested in having a rain garden.

So what exactly is a rain garden and how does it help curb water pollution?

Rain gardens use native plants to manage storm water runoff. Loose, absorbant soil in a shallow bowl shape collects rainwater running off your roof, driveway, and other hard surfaces. Perennial plants help absorb the water while sand and soil at the base of the garden filter out pollutants.

Rain gardens are shallow, depressed gardens designed to collect rain water and allow it time to filter into the ground. This results in cleaner water, less water entering our storm systems and more water refilling the underground water table that keeps small streams flowing during the dry summer months. Rain Gardens are lovely, lively, colorful, low maintenance habitats for insects and animals. Their native plants provide food to song birds and butterflies.

Rain gardens:

• help reduce pollution in lakes, rivers and streams
• help recharge groundwater
• create native habitat for wildlife and butterflies
• beautify your landscape in a natural, sustainable way
• once installed are low/no maintenance

Studies show that half of all stormwater pollution comes from residential property. Pesticides, fertilizers and other products we use to care for our property are generally bad for the environment. When it rains, these pollutants go directly into our water supply. Rain gardens are a natural filter that help to clean out such pollutants.

Native flowers in a Nashville Rain Garden, Nashville, TN

Why are “native” plants necessary for rain gardens?

Native plants are indigenous to a specific region, so they are ideally adapted to local soil and climate.

Native plant are best for the following reasons:

• Best adapted to local conditions, so no need to use chemical fertilizers.
• Water conservation – once plants are established in the right place, there is no need for supplemental watering.
• If native plants are placed correctly in the landscape they require less care than non-native species.
• Provide food and shelter for wildlife.

How do you find the right native plants? click here to find native plants for your area / region

And then, click here to Find resources to help you plan, plant and enjoy your own rain garden

Some metropolitan water districts are actively encouraging (providing plans and plants for free) people to plant rain gardens on their property. You should check with your local water district to see if they have such a project.

Newly planted rain garden in Nashville, TN