DALE DRINNON: Moche/Mayan Monkey Men

Today my regular email account is not working and so I am using the alternate account. So far today I have a couple of postings leftover from the "Mayan Monkey Man" postings of last week. At the Frontiers of Zoology I have a Moche pot which appears to be representing the same thing as the Mayan artwork is showing:
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2012/02/moche-monkey-man.html

And at Frontiers of Anthropology is a different take on one of the Mayan pieces:
http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2012/02/american-hanuman.html

INAPPROPRIATE CORNER: Has there ever been a gymnasium advert in worse taste?

Back in the 1980s there was a series of tasteless and brash adverts for a designer clothes, but I don't think that there has been anything which has shown quite such a lapse of taste as this ad for a Dubai gym.

Unless, of course, there is someone out there who can prove me wrong...

http://www.inquisitr.com/177091/auschwitz-gym-ad-dubai-circuit-factory-gym/

BIG CAT NEWS: Neil Arnold on a Kent Big Cat photo

With the recent video of an alleged 'big cat' appearing on The Sun website, I'd be interested to see what CFZ readers make of this image which I published in my MYSTERY ANIMALS OF...KENT book in 2009.

The photo was snapped in 1998 by a Kent man named Harry Matthews whilst he was working on marshes at Cooling, a few miles outside of Rochester.




At the time the story featured on the local news, and in no way did Mr Matthews say it was an enormous cat, but he felt it was more than just a feral. Interestingly, a story appeared on one of the major tabloid websites from elsewhere in the country and this photo was stolen and spoken of as 'the beast of Bodmin', but it isn't, it was photographed in Kent. It's one of the clearest photo's ever taken, and has led some to believe it's a Reed Cat (Jungle Cat), others believe it to be a domestic/Jungle cat hybrid. It certainly isn't much bigger than a fox, your opinions please.

Regards

Neil Arnold

STRANDED WHALE SHARK

this picture of a stranded whale shark from Pakistan has proliferated itself across the Internet. I have a sneaking suspicion that like this picture that we featured a few weeks ago, the impression of size has ben achieved through forced perspective...

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/giant-whale-shark-washes-ashore-1328633340-slideshow/#crsl=%252Fphotos%252Fgiant-whale-shark-washes-ashore-1328633340-slideshow%252Fresidents-gather-whale-shark-pulled-water-cranes-found-photo-155314580.html

HAUNTED SKIES: People (The) 14.6.59.

http://hauntedskies.blogspot.com/2012/02/people-14659.html

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

On this day in 1960 Queen Elizabeth II issued an order in council that her family would be known as the house of Windsor and her descendants would take the name Mountbatten-Windsor.

And now the news:


Domestic Cats, and Wild Bobcats and Pumas, Living ...
ATM Gives Out Dead Mouse
Glacier thief arrested in Chile
'Cat-Eye' Boy Video Said To Show Chinese Child Who...
Bird numbers plummet around stricken Fukushima pla...
First assessment of Endangered Northern Rockhopper...
Conflict elephant rescued from death sentence
Anthrax outbreak at Mana Pools
Boas Time Their Big Squeeze to Prey's Heartbeat (v...
Georgia Reins In Harvest of Freshwater Turtles (v...


Charles Mountbatten-Windsor busting some moves and breakdancing (yes it is him and no he is quite good at it all things considered) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTUrc-De2xY

BIG CAT NEWS: The Beast of Stroud

Many thanks to Penny of Big Cats at Large for drawing our attention to this interesting piece of video which appeared yesterday on The Sun's website.

They write:

"A LEOPARD-like creature 6ft from nose to tail is caught on video bounding across a field at dusk — which an expert believes is final proof Britain's Big Cats really do exist".

That is - I am afraid - hyperbole; it is an interesting video, but it is a long way from being conclusive proof. However The Sun have got their best headline for many years:



For those of you too young to get this uncharacterfully self-referential joke, check out this front page from the same newspaper during the latter half of the 1982 Falklands War:



Now check out the video:

Scientific English as She Is Spoke

I first read about English as She Is Spoke many years ago in Stephen Pile's Book of Heroic Failures. Wikipedia has this to say about it:

English as She Is Spoke is the common name of a 19th century book written by Pedro Carolino and falsely additionally credited to José da Fonseca, which was intended as a Portuguese-English conversational guide or phrase book, but is regarded as a classic source of unintentional humour, as the given English translations are generally completely incoherent. Carolino added Fonseca's name to the book without the latter knowing about it. Fonseca had written a successful Portuguese-French phrase book, which Carolino adapted.

Over the weekend Richard Muirhead has continued his ongoing researches into Hong Kong natural history for the book we are writing together. He found an interesting looking database, and used online translation software to convert it into The Queen's English:

DALE DRINNON: Thunderbirds/out of Africa

Two New Entries on Thunderbirds and the Texas "Big Birds" of the 1970s, on Frontiers of Zoology:

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2012/02/other-big-birds-possibly-being-reported.html

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2012/02/texas-big-bird-of-1970s.html

And a pleasant stroll Out Of Africa and Around The World on Frontiers of Anthropology:
http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2012/02/out-of-africa-by-faces.html