The strange noises in the sky - just... wow! Take a listen.

I used to be interested in weird phenomena of this sort years ago, when I was writing horror fiction - UFOs, phone calls from the dead, ghosts, poltergeists, the Bermuda Triangle, fish and frogs falling from the sky, people disappearing into thin air, teleportation, demonic possession, telepathy, whatever. Partly, I was on the look-out for material; partly, I enjoyed the chill that would often accompany reading about unexplained mysteries; and, partly, I was tickled by the possibility that there might be "more things in heaven and earth..." etc. (I've never really been a fan of Occam's Razor). This interest in weirdness pretty much evaporated around the time our son was born and I started attending church - make of that what you will. 

But, occasionally, I'll read or see something about an intriguing, inexplicable 

happening that sends another of those pleasurable shiver down the spine. Like this article, which appeared in the Daily Mail two days ago, about the strange cosmic brass section-style sky concert people around the world have been experiencing for the last ten years or so. 

Of course, if something like this had happened in a previous era, scientists would probably have poo-poohed it, dismissing those who claimed to have heard the noises as charlatans or credulous hysterics. The great American recorder of "anomalous phenomena", Charles Fort, would have had a field-day mocking scientists for their unwillingness to investigate... and most people would have sided with the sceptics. But now we have camera phones and videocams and tablets. Obviously, these are all subject to fakery, but it's hard to argue that this isn't real:

If you look on YouTube, there are dozens and dozens of other videos evidently capturing the great SF soundtrack in the sky. Scientists are hard at work coming up with an explanation (for instance, here). And, of course, religious apocalypsts are out in force, referencing Chapter 8 of The Book Of Revelation:

1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

2 And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.

3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

4 And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.

5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

6 And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

I won't quote what happens next - but it isn't good. 

Someone, somwehere simply has to be planning a science fiction blockbuster movie based on all this. I'm looking forward to it.