China and Russia are working together to create something similar to the officially-released purpose of the American High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP). Five experiments launched in June with the purpose of modifying the ionosphere above the Earth for both communication and military purposes. They were able to modify a zone more than 310 mile above a small Russian town in Eastern Europe called Vasilsursk, according to Chinese media. During the modification, the small town experienced an electric spike, which carried 10 times more negatively-charged subatomic particles than other regions.

A second experiment heated that portion of the atmosphere – a portion roughly half the size of Great Britain – more than 200 degrees Fahrenheit, due to particle flux. Those particles were shot into the ionosphere from a Soviet-Era atmospheric heating station in the small town called Sura. It was also utilized during the Cold War. This was done by an array of high-power antennae designed to spike the higher levels of the atmosphere with a large amount of microwave radiation. According to the Chinese report, the peak power of these waves was 260 megawatts, which is enough juice to light a small city.

China, which does not make a habit of working on new technology and military projects with other foreign powers, declared the results of the experiment were “satisfactory.” Measurements of it were taken by an orbiting Chinese electromagnetic surveillance satellite called Zhangheng-1. It was able to switch to a “burst mode” to collect data samples every half-second. This was to ensure the data had a high resolution.

While this experiment has raised a lot of controversy, the facility from which it was launched was built in 1981 for this expressed purpose. Control of the ionosphere and  for clandestine communications and detection of things ranging from submarines to natural resources, according to a Popular Mechanics article, which called the Chinese chase for a HAARP of their own a chase for weapons instead of science.

High-energy microwaves, such as those recently discharged by Russia and China in Russia allow the controller to manipulate communications. The Soviets used it to enhance submarine communication, the Americans were accused of using it for everything from manufactured earthquakes and tsunamis to weather manipulation – but these claims have been heavily disputed by official sources as “conspiracy theories.” In reality, they can penetrate ground or water as deep as 328 feet and even disrupt satellite communication.

HAARP was likely built by the Americans for the purpose of submarine and satellite communications when it was constructed in the 1990s in Alaska. It was able to produce about one gigawatt of power, which is four times more than the Sura experiment in June.

Not to be outdone, however, China is building its own – and much bigger – facility in Sanya inside the Hainan Province. Critics of this believe such a facility will be disruptive to international air travel from China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and other nations flying over that city.

Tales of what have become known as the Black Eyed Children have now been circulating for a couple of decades. The witnesses are many. The cases are creepy and bizarre. But, it’s fair to say that we still don’t have a solid answer as to what they are or what they want. So, today I’m focusing on the extraterrestrial/UFO theory. It’s worth noting an intriguing UFO connection to the very strange saga of the Black Eyed Children: they have deep parallels to the notorious Men in Black, who have, for decades, terrorized and intimidated into silence numerous witnesses to UFOs. Just like the BECs, the Men in Black have a propensity for knocking on doors late at night. The two mirror each other in other fashions, too: like their child counterparts, the MIB will not enter a home until they are specifically invited to do so (shades of vampire lore, legend and very often movies). Both the MIB and the BEC wear black. Both wear head-gear: hoodies for the Black Eyed Children, and 1950s-era fedoras for the MIB. And there is another intriguing issue: very often the Men in Black wear thick, wraparound, black sunglasses.

I have to wonder if this MIB/sunglasses angle is done not just to provoke a menacing atmosphere, but to mask a pair of emotion-free, solid, black eyes of the type that the Black Eyed Children are described as having. In that sense, and just perhaps, the Men in Black and the Black Eyed Children are one and the same: one in adult form and the other in child form, but both following the same secret agenda – whatever that may really be. So, where does that all leave us? Well, it admittedly leaves us with a lot of questions and not a great deal else. But they are questions that a certain, acclaimed and dedicated researcher of the Black Eyed has done his very best to resolve.

Undoubtedly the leading investigator in this field, and the author of the book, The Black Eyed Children, David Weatherlyhas collected and studied dozens of such cases, demonstrating the sheer scale of these weird and unsettling events. David’s work has addressed a variety of theories for the origins and presence of the BECs: that they might be demonic in nature, or predatory spirits, or possibly even products of the human mind, given some semblance of physical life in the real world. Notably, David has also spent much time researching the theory that the Black Eyed Children have nothing less than an alien lineage. David cites the case of two women, Ann and Marcia, who have both had alien abduction experiences and who have also both encountered the BECs – and, in Marcia’s case, in the now-typical “knocking on the door and demanding to be let in” situation.

Of strange cases such as these, David says: “Why would an alien race want, or need, to create hybrid beings? There are a number of proposed theories to explain why such an experiment may be taking place. These theories range from a dying race that needs an injection of fresh DNA in order to survive, to time travelers attempting to correct a mistake made in their past (which is our present).”

I will leave the final words on this issue UFO-Black Eyed Children controversy to David. They are words that fit comfortably with what we have seen so far: “An even more sinister theory that has followers, postulates that the grays are actually attempting to take over our world by slowly breeding us out and phasing in beings with alien DNA. Over time the human race will fade away to be replaced by the ‘superior’ DNA of the gray aliens, adherents say.”

Baseball has its Oldtimers games. Golf has its Seniors Tour. Dancing with the Stars brings back past champions. Perhaps the Fortean world needs a place for those classic old sightings that keep coming back and baffling many – even when the cause of the event is usually known or easy to explain. The best example of this creatures falling from the sky. While cows, elephants, pythons and other large or strange animals would certainly warrant attention, fish falling from the sky have become more common and even an annual event in some locations. Yet the overnight or sudden appearance of thousands of flopping fish still gets people excited. That was the case this week in India, where yet another classic fish fall was reported.

“According to sources, a resident of Amalapuram captured the video of the “fish rain” at around 4pm and circulated it among his friends.”

Fortean phenomena are a lot more fun now that we have cell phones and social media. The WhatsApp video quickly made it to the Times of India, which interviewed the unnamed videographer from Amalapuram, a town in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh located in the delta of Konaseema, which places it between two tributaries of the Godavari River and the Bay of Bengal. Do you need a bigger hint as to where the fish may have come from? (Photos and video here.)

It’s happened before.

“A meteorologist from Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said that strong winds of the storms like Cyclone Phethai sometimes carry displaced fish, frogs from the water bodies and drop on the land.”

The news was big enough to be picked up by the Weather Channel, which just happened to have reporters hanging on to lampposts as they covered the (hint alert) Cyclone Phethai,which made landfall in Andhra Pradesh on December 17, destroying over 10,000 farm and, even worse, damaging an estimated total of 12,094 mobile towers, which could explain why there was only one video circulating of the fish rain.

While no greater source than the Weather Channel said it, all good Forteans know that there’s still never been scientific observation of fish rising out from a body of water due to a cyclone, waterspout, hurricane or other phenomena – only their falling from the sky or mysteriously appearing on the ground. And it’s often the case that they were brought by flooding, not rain. Still, there are times when there seems to be no weather explanation for falling fish, frogs, snakes and other non-flying creatures. Thus, they continue to be reported.

Stay tuned to Legends of Forteana for future coverage of fish rain, spontaneous human combustion, alien big cats, levitation and much, much more.