Midland Charity Auctions
6th June 2010
D-Day Anniversary 1944. 66 years on & still remembered.
Lodge Park Social Club
Wirehill Drive, Lodge Park, Redditch, Worcestershire.
First Auction around 10.00 - 10.30 am.Doors open 9am.
Alan Green is doing a presentation / talk on his trips to Colombia, South America. This will be about 30 minutes starting at 10.15am. First auction starts straight after.Alan doesn't do these talks all over the place so this is a real one off.Please try & get here early. We have to cram a lot into a few short hours.
Wheelchair access & disabled toilet facilities.
Entry to Auction £2. This is not a membership fee. All this goes into the charity fund.Auction entries are free. We take out 10% of the selling price for charity. Many auctions are taking 15%+. This auction is for breeders to buy / sell & support charity.
http://www.ta-aquaculture.co.uk/
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
LINDSAY SELBY: Freshwater Octopi
In Oklahoma, Lake Thunderbird, Lake Tenkiller and Lake Oolagah (sometimes spelt Oologah) have become the subject of media attention due to stories that a freshwater octopus living in them pulls down swimmers to their deaths. The creature that supposedly resides there is described as reddish-brown, leathery skin and approximately the size of a horse. Some say it looks like an octopus , others like a shark with tentacles.
All the lakes are man made. Lake Thunderbird is a reservoir constructed between 1962 and 1965 for the purpose of providing municipal water to nearby towns along the Little River. (The lake is named after the Native American legend of the Thunderbird, a supernatural bird of power and strength.) Lake Tenkiller was created by damming the Illinois River. The earth-fill dam was constructed between 1947 and 1952 for purposes of flood control and hydroelectric power generation. Lake Oolagah was finished in 1974. The recent nature of the lakes makes it unlikely that any ancient creature resides there.
There are Native American stories about the octopus, going back nearly two hundred years. Most of the tribes in Oklahoma were transplanted there in the 1830s. The tribes settled around the water ways, which then became the lakes. The local legends talk of creatures that lived in the spring-fed ponds that dotted the area before the lakes were there. The stories go on to say that the ponds were linked underground so the tentacle creature would lurk just beneath the surface waiting for prey to come for a drink. It would then drag them to their deaths. When the lakes were made the creatures moved in but still lurked in the old springs that lead to the lake bottom.
Tyler Shuman, Ruthie Simple, and Bruce DelRoy were three teenagers reported to have drownED, pulled down by the creature and the newspaper reports also apparently said the two other teenagers with them had blister like wounds and scabs , like the marks caused by Octopus suckers. However I have been unable to confirm this.
In January 2009 A group of teenagers apparently filed another sighting of the Octopus .(again I have been unable to find official confirmation of this)
Many say a freshwater octopus is not a possibility, however there may be another explanation . Divers in the lakes have seen giant catfish and it is now known that large cat fish will drag a swimmer down and they are carnivorous. It is possible the long whiskers of such a huge fish(Some say as big as a car) could be mistaken for tentacles waving about. There have also been reports of juvenile alligators being seen .I would think the catfish is the most likely culprit. It may not be as exciting as an octopus, but just as deadly and just as interesting.
All the lakes are man made. Lake Thunderbird is a reservoir constructed between 1962 and 1965 for the purpose of providing municipal water to nearby towns along the Little River. (The lake is named after the Native American legend of the Thunderbird, a supernatural bird of power and strength.) Lake Tenkiller was created by damming the Illinois River. The earth-fill dam was constructed between 1947 and 1952 for purposes of flood control and hydroelectric power generation. Lake Oolagah was finished in 1974. The recent nature of the lakes makes it unlikely that any ancient creature resides there.
There are Native American stories about the octopus, going back nearly two hundred years. Most of the tribes in Oklahoma were transplanted there in the 1830s. The tribes settled around the water ways, which then became the lakes. The local legends talk of creatures that lived in the spring-fed ponds that dotted the area before the lakes were there. The stories go on to say that the ponds were linked underground so the tentacle creature would lurk just beneath the surface waiting for prey to come for a drink. It would then drag them to their deaths. When the lakes were made the creatures moved in but still lurked in the old springs that lead to the lake bottom.
Tyler Shuman, Ruthie Simple, and Bruce DelRoy were three teenagers reported to have drownED, pulled down by the creature and the newspaper reports also apparently said the two other teenagers with them had blister like wounds and scabs , like the marks caused by Octopus suckers. However I have been unable to confirm this.
In January 2009 A group of teenagers apparently filed another sighting of the Octopus .(again I have been unable to find official confirmation of this)
Many say a freshwater octopus is not a possibility, however there may be another explanation . Divers in the lakes have seen giant catfish and it is now known that large cat fish will drag a swimmer down and they are carnivorous. It is possible the long whiskers of such a huge fish(Some say as big as a car) could be mistaken for tentacles waving about. There have also been reports of juvenile alligators being seen .I would think the catfish is the most likely culprit. It may not be as exciting as an octopus, but just as deadly and just as interesting.
DALE DRINNON: Predicted news item
Originally posted at the Frontiers of Zoology group, March 31, 2010.
I thought I'd re-post this because there has been a very selective amnesia about who was actively backing Offshore drilling back before the disastrous oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico. The blame falls directly upon one Barack Obama, remember him? He is the man that reprehensibly flushed billions of dollars down the toilet as his first piece of business. Thereby effectively selling the children and grandchildren of present-day Americans into perpetual slavery to the debt which he has created. And not only was this incredibly reprehensible act not criticized, but the man is applauded and even imitated in other nations for doing so.
Americans need to adjust the rate at which they are using up the world's resources, across the board and drastically. And the last thing we need to worry about doing at this point is Saving the Rich.
[Editorial Commentary:]
News Item,
Predicted Followup News Item
Obama clears way for oil drilling off US coasts
By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer Philip Elliott, Associated Press Writer 54 mins ago
WASHINGTON Reversing a ban on oil drilling off most U.S. shores, President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced an expansive new policy that would put oil and natural gas platforms in waters along the southern Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and part of Alaska [emph. added]. Speaking at Andrews air base outside Washington, Obama said, "This is not a decision that I've made lightly." He addressed the expected outcry from disappointed environmentalists by saying he had studied the issue for more than a year and concluded it was the right call given the nation's voracious thirst for energy and the need to produce jobs and keep American businesses competitive.
PREDICTED FUTURE FOLLOWUP NEWS ITEM:
Obama Approves Re-Introduction of Institutionalized Whaling
Washington (UPI)
In a move sure to further anger Conservationists and alienate the party he pretends to represent, President Barack Obama Announced the revival of harvesting whale-oil by professional whalers. "It's them or us, and I know where we all stand on that!" said Obama from the Oval Office. "Whales, porpoises, dolphins, seals, fuel oil; it's all the same to me" "We've got a historical precident for sucking the resources of this planet dry so it's going to be suck, suck, suck, until we can't suck any more out of the tired old world"
In a later program, Obama began questioning members of Congress about the economic feasibilty of instituting cannibalism, to feed the upper class. "There's a lot of edible protein on your average lower-class ten-year-old and it's all going to waste" he is reported to have said to a fellow Democrat.
[Dale A Drinnon is widely known as an Anarchist and in opposition to both major political parties of the United States. Dale Drinnon is opposed to the Capitalist system on moral and ethical grounds and he has yet to receive a dime from any of his writings, including his Cryptozoological work. He does not even own an automobile.]
I thought I'd re-post this because there has been a very selective amnesia about who was actively backing Offshore drilling back before the disastrous oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico. The blame falls directly upon one Barack Obama, remember him? He is the man that reprehensibly flushed billions of dollars down the toilet as his first piece of business. Thereby effectively selling the children and grandchildren of present-day Americans into perpetual slavery to the debt which he has created. And not only was this incredibly reprehensible act not criticized, but the man is applauded and even imitated in other nations for doing so.
Americans need to adjust the rate at which they are using up the world's resources, across the board and drastically. And the last thing we need to worry about doing at this point is Saving the Rich.
[Editorial Commentary:]
News Item,
Predicted Followup News Item
Obama clears way for oil drilling off US coasts
By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer Philip Elliott, Associated Press Writer 54 mins ago
WASHINGTON Reversing a ban on oil drilling off most U.S. shores, President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced an expansive new policy that would put oil and natural gas platforms in waters along the southern Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and part of Alaska [emph. added]. Speaking at Andrews air base outside Washington, Obama said, "This is not a decision that I've made lightly." He addressed the expected outcry from disappointed environmentalists by saying he had studied the issue for more than a year and concluded it was the right call given the nation's voracious thirst for energy and the need to produce jobs and keep American businesses competitive.
PREDICTED FUTURE FOLLOWUP NEWS ITEM:
Obama Approves Re-Introduction of Institutionalized Whaling
Washington (UPI)
In a move sure to further anger Conservationists and alienate the party he pretends to represent, President Barack Obama Announced the revival of harvesting whale-oil by professional whalers. "It's them or us, and I know where we all stand on that!" said Obama from the Oval Office. "Whales, porpoises, dolphins, seals, fuel oil; it's all the same to me" "We've got a historical precident for sucking the resources of this planet dry so it's going to be suck, suck, suck, until we can't suck any more out of the tired old world"
In a later program, Obama began questioning members of Congress about the economic feasibilty of instituting cannibalism, to feed the upper class. "There's a lot of edible protein on your average lower-class ten-year-old and it's all going to waste" he is reported to have said to a fellow Democrat.
[Dale A Drinnon is widely known as an Anarchist and in opposition to both major political parties of the United States. Dale Drinnon is opposed to the Capitalist system on moral and ethical grounds and he has yet to receive a dime from any of his writings, including his Cryptozoological work. He does not even own an automobile.]
LIZ CLANCY: Forteana of Uganda
Today is the feast day of St Charles Lwanga and companions, patron saints of Uganda. For anyone interested in St Charles's story see this article:
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=35
Anyhow, what better date to begin a series of blogs on the Forteana of Uganda than this? Well, today is the introduction. Given that in Ireland this saint's feast is celebrated tomorrow, I'll post the first actual blog tomorrow....
And since my lovely boyfriend Paul is Ugandan, I'm dedicating the series to him.
Naku penda sana, Paul.
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=35
Anyhow, what better date to begin a series of blogs on the Forteana of Uganda than this? Well, today is the introduction. Given that in Ireland this saint's feast is celebrated tomorrow, I'll post the first actual blog tomorrow....
And since my lovely boyfriend Paul is Ugandan, I'm dedicating the series to him.
Naku penda sana, Paul.
CORINNA DOWNES: Yesterday's News Today
Continuing to babysit YNT in Oll's absence...
Cambodian 'jungle woman' flees back to wild
Australia vets treat hundreds of "drunken" parrots
Snails on crystal meth: The facts
The cave of bones: A story of solenodon survival
First record of Greater kestrel in West Africa
Maths proves that giraffes can swim
Giant tortoises released onto Pinta Island for the first time for 40 years
Believe it or not I did find a song supposedly written for Lonesome George by a band called Yeti Lane, of all people, but alas no lyrics available.
Cambodian 'jungle woman' flees back to wild
Australia vets treat hundreds of "drunken" parrots
Snails on crystal meth: The facts
The cave of bones: A story of solenodon survival
First record of Greater kestrel in West Africa
Maths proves that giraffes can swim
Giant tortoises released onto Pinta Island for the first time for 40 years
Believe it or not I did find a song supposedly written for Lonesome George by a band called Yeti Lane, of all people, but alas no lyrics available.