RETURN OF THE JENNY HANIVER

FROM YOUTUBE: In this video... u can see a fish, which was caught from Bramhaputra River in Dhubri District (Assam). When people taken out it from water, the fish was died. But the people of this region thought that it should not be spread through out the country or World, because according to them it was sent by God, as the people of that place are uneducated and the place is also very Backward. At last the local people buried it in the ground... But I think, this special Fish should be given to the Scientist for research for finding out the mystery of this Special Fish.. Am I wrong?? Please see this video and give your comment...

It is, of course, a jenny haniver (an artificial construct made from a dead skate), and it is interesting to see how many people still take such things seriously.

NEW AT THE WEIRD WEEKEND

There are several new developments with the Weird Weekend liveup. We are awaiting confirmation on all the details but we can tell you about two short films that are being shown. Mike Dash will be introducing Nick Flintoff's award winning short film about the `Great Devon Mystery` (the night in the mid 19th Century when something - maybe the Devil, matbe not - left horseshoe shaped footprints in snow across South Devon). There is also a short film about the Owlman of Mawnan (no, not that film), and an excerpt from a documentary about Ken Campbell, with Q+A sessions with the producers/directors. More details on this soon...

MANCHESTER MARTENS (Via Richard Muirhead)

CFZ ARCHIVING PROJECT: Forteana Part 18

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 fifteench collection once again really is a general mishmash of completely uncategoriseable stuff, including including graverobbers, the exhumation of John Wilkes Booth, shark attacks, alien abductions, Cuban organ theft, and the ghost of a nun who once ran a brothel. It doesn't get much better than this. Good stuff.

HERE

WEIRD WEEKEND 2010: Matt Osborne asked us to repost this

MATT OSBORNE WRITES: Dear Jon, please can you let the select few know that Emma and I have a room we will let for WW10 for £20 a night (to include a raid on a cereal and toast each morning!) Telephone 01237 870550

CANTON'S 1000 YEAR OLD TESTUDINE

Richard Muirhead sent me this from the China Mail, June 18, 1947. It is particularly interesting but for all the wrong reasons. As Richard points out "According to my `The Guiness Book of Animals Records` Mark Carwardine p.181 (1995) the oldest authenticated age for a tortoise was 152 years". I believe that a tortoise in Tonga belonging to the late Queen Salote lived longer than that, but this is just a hearsay story my mother toldf me when I was young.



However, the idea of a tortoise (or indeed any vertebrate) living 1,000 years is highly unlikely. I would refer the gentle reader to the Chinese delicacy of 1,000 year old eggs, which are seldom even a tenth of that age. The term "1,000 years" generally just means "Old".



The next interesting thing is that the animal is supposed to have originally come from the Paracel Islands. This is remarkably unlikely because as gfar as I can ascertain there are no land reptiles living on these islands, although it must be admitted that there are at least two species of marine turtle.



Finally, I have no idea what CNC$4,000 refers to in today's currency, but it would seem to be an enormous amount of money to spend on the upkeep of a tortoise, or indeed any animal. I think that this news item is most probably a satire with some social or political message that meant a lot to the readers of this English language Chinese newspaper, but which - after the passage of 63 years - is now obscure.



Ideas anyone?

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 2001 the last Tsar of Bulgaria, Simeon Sakskoburggotski, was elected as the country’s prime minister making him the first monarch in history to regain political power by democratic election to a different office. And now, the news:

Village weaver appears on Portland
New Species Comes out of its Shell and onto the Ma...
New species of fresh water fish found
Corrie cat's ashes auctioned off
Cat-like animal sighting in Granville disputed

Yes, I know it says Granville not Grenville but, this just happens to be a good song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQlPhkv0kZk