VINTAGE KARL

CFZ ARCHIVING PROJECT: Forteana part 11

As you know, Oll has been working on the archiving project since early February 2009 and he is now working on a general mish-mash of a section known as `General Forteana`. This tenth trenche is a collection of completely uncategoriseable stuff including animal attacks, a decapitated python, and dogs that saved a small child with Down's syndrome. It doesn't get much better than this. Good stuff.

HERE

LINDSAY SELBY: A monster hunter and a gentleman.

There is one monster hunter at Loch Ness, an academic, that not many people know about. Most have heard of Frank Searle, Tim Dinsdale, Roy Mackal and Bob Rines but I wonder how many know the name of Henry Bauer? Henry first visited the Loch in 1958 and has spent many summers there since. Henry believes in Nessie, wrote a book about it and you can find out more at his website:
http://henryhbauer.homestead.com/LochNessFacts.html

Extract from his website: Because the media continue to treat Nessie only as an amusing story. The objective and strong evidence summarized in the above article is not properly presented in the "documentary" films and television programs about the subject. There have been at least 18 such programs (in English alone) since the 1970s. Typically they give the false impression that eyewitness reports are the main grounds for believing Nessies to be real. Often the strongest evidence is not even mentioned, and when it is, it is often misrepresented. For a detailed analysis of the 17 documentaries shown between 1972 and 2001, see my article,

"Common Knowledge about the Loch Ness Monster" Journal of Scientific Exploration, 16(3): 455--477 (2002)

I had published earlier analyses of the coverage that Nessie has received in newspapers, magazines, and books:

Public Perception of the Loch Ness Monster, Scottish Naturalist, 1988, 69--93
The Loch Ness Monster: Public Perception and the Evidence, Cryptozoology, 1 (1982) 40—45

Henry does have some controversial theories on some subjects but I have always found him to be a gentleman and very friendly and helpful. He and Tim Dinsdale got along well and I could see why: they were both, I found, to be basically nice honest people (which is more than can be said for some that were around the Loch at various times). Henry has always replied when I have contacted him, is always pleasant and helpful so I thought he deserved a blog post.

http://henryhbauer.homestead.com/

THE ISRAELI GREY WHALE ON FILM

BLACK CHINS BREEDING

In another bit of good news, the black-chinned girardinus that Max brought about a month ago are breeding very succesfully. They are not rare but they are uncommon in captivity, and we are very pleased with what we have done. Oll has done very well....

Orchids - result!

As regular readers may know, I have no great opinion of Government, either local or national, but during the saga of the Early Purple Orchids of Fairy Cross, those in authority could not have been nicer.


We met a very nice chap called Stephen this afternoon onsite, and in the course of a meeting that lasted well under five minutes, he agreed that the orchids should be protected, and has agreed that the grass should not be mown to give the flowers a chance to seed, and has devolved responsibility for maintaining the small headland upon which there is now a colony of ten or more flower spikes to the CFZ. If only the functionaries of Central Government were as sensible, reasonable and downright nice to deal with.


BTW, on the picture he can be seen (just about) on the right hand side, but we did not have permission to photograph him. We took pics in which he could be identified, in full expectation of having to mount a campaign of ridicule against the decision-makers, but as we have explained, we could not have been more wrong.


It is nice that a conservation story has a happy ending for a change.

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1917 three children claimed to have had a vision of the virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_F%C3%A1tima
And now, the news:

Computer mice risk to your health
Mother bear saving stuck baby bear
Giant herring found in Sweden

A chance to make fish puns? That’s ‘dace’ whenever fish get mentioned there’s always po-‘tench’-ial for some ‘cod’ly puns…

(Not good enough? Oh well, ‘eel’ get my coat then)