Page 65 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2023 Edition

Lake Ontario’s Bermuda Triangle
‘Strange things out there’:
Inside Lake Ontario’s
‘Bermuda Triangle’
Continued from Page 64
It all began in Bermuda
Before Hugh Cochrane identified the
Marysburgh Vortex, there was the
Bermuda Triangle, a stretch of ocean
between Miami, Bermuda and Puerto
Rico with an allegedly high incidence of
shipwrecks and mysterious
disappearances.
Charles Berlitz, scion of the Berlitz
Language School empire, is credited with
popularizing the legend. His 1974 best-
seller The Bermuda Triangle sold nearly
20-million copies worldwide, and
transformed the once-obscure bit of
nautical lore into a household name,
spawning an army of imitators in the
process.
The Bass Strait Triangle in Australia, the
Broad Haven Triangle in Wales and the
Bennington Triangle in Vermont are just
a few examples of the triangle boom of
the 1970s and ‘80s.
Even the term “Bermuda Triangle” has
become synonymous with
unexplained, and finds itself attached to
places nowhere near Bermuda. There is
the Alaskan Bermuda Triangle, the
Mexican Bermuda Triangle,
Romanian Bermuda Triangle, the African
Bermuda Triangle — even the Bermuda
Triangle of Space.
It’s possible to view Cochrane’s
Marysburgh Vortex as an attempt to cash
in on the popularity of the Bermuda
Triangle by transposing it onto a
Canadian locale.
It would be hard to believe that Cochrane
was not influenced by the Bermuda
Triangle legend. Both stories document a
pattern of disappearing ships and planes
over a roughly triangular body of water.
Even the cover of Gateway to Oblivion is
a mirror image of Berlitz’ original.
Still, many of the shipwreck stories
featured in Gateway to Oblivion have
been part of local lore, long before the
Bermuda Triangle ever existed as a
concept. And Cochrane writes with the
breathless cadence of a true believer,
blending densely packed historical
anecdotes with an elaborate set of
pseudoscientific explanations that are
hard to pin down.
Cochrane himself, who, according to an
acquaintance, passed away in 1999, is an
elusive figure. Attempts to track down
additional biographical details have been
futile. Perhaps, as one Facebook
commenter suggested, “the Vortex got
him.”
Regardless of what became of the man,
the legend of the Marysburgh Vortex
lives on in the hearts and minds of Prince
Edward County residents like Janet
Kellough.
the
“There’s something very special about
that area, and I think anybody who’s
spent any time close to it feels that.”
the Whether or not the Vortex is the result of
supernatural forces is of less importance
to Kellough. There are many mysterious
places on this planet. But the history,
geography, culture and experiences that
inform this legend are actually quite
familiar. They are the texture that makes
life in this small corner of southern
Ontario unique.
“It’s an absolutely wonderful story. And
“The Only difference between and
we have too few wonderful stories in this
Dream and Reality is Doing It!”
world.” []
PARANORMAL STAKEOUT RADIO/TV SHOW
THE ‘X’ ZONE BROADCAST NETWORK
Available For Your Listening Pleasure at
Visit the Paranormal StakeOut Website at
www.paranormalstakeout.org
65
DEBUNKED: NASA Can
Travel Faster Than Light.
If you've seen the "Star Trek" clips that
show the Enterprise spaceship warping
(opens in new tab) into another sector, you
might have wondered how fast NASA is
making progress on being able to move at
the speed of light. The EmDrive has created
years of speculation, with some
breathlessly saying NASA must be on the
verge of breaking the famed barrier.In
reality, NASA is downplaying the reports.
The engine in question is a prototype that is
producing some interesting results, such as
appearing to create thrust when there was
no reason for this to happen – and thereby
violating Newton's Third Law of Motion.
That said, NASA has not yet verified the
results from these tests, and the engine has
not been widely discussed in peer-reviewed
research.
DEBUNKED: We’ve Launched
Balloons Into Space.
With the advent of high-resolution,
miniature cameras, several people have
decided to strap these cameras on to high-
altitude balloons and take pictures from up
high. They've caught glimpses of blackness
and, at times, taken interesting tiny
passengers along (such as Lego pieces and
a Canadian flag in 2012). So they must be
in space, right? There's no way a helium
balloon can get into space, according to the
California Institute of Technology (opens in
new tab), and simple physics explains why.
When a balloon rises into the sky, the air
inside will expand in response to the
dropping atmospheric pressure and
eventually pop. Even Felix Baumgartner's
stunning high-altitude balloon jump in
2012 was not actually from space, but from
the stratosphere, which extends to roughly
31 miles (50 kilometers) above the Earth's
surface. At that altitude the air is thin
enough to see the blackness of space, but
thick enough to support special high-
altitude balloons. The boundary between
Earth's atmosphere and outer space is about
twice as high as the upper limits of the
stratosphere.
- Rob McConnell
Hosted by
LARRY LAWSON
is on
www.XZBN.net