SOME ODDS AND SODS COURTESY OF CHAD ARMENT

Info on a giant fossil cheetah:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44151536/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.TlRlhV3EhFw

The orange Alaskan mystery substance was spores, not eggs:
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/18/alaskan-mystery-substance-is-fungal-spores-not-eggs-noaa-says/

Ripley's is putting in a museum in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, and wants to put a Chessie model on the facade:
http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2011/08/18/ripleys-pitches-3-d-chessie.html

WW2011: Richard Freeman - The India Expedition

PRUDENCE UPDATE

Poor Pru is still feeling sorry for herself. I don't think it is the pain (remember what her ancestors were bred for - they are allegedly pretty impervious to pain) so much as the fact that she has to sleep in the kitchen rather than upstairs with us, and that she is not allowed to jump on and off the sofa or armchairs, and is confined to the floor. Poor dear, she thinks she is being punished for something.

HAUNTED SKIES: Yorkshire Post 23.4.88

http://hauntedskies.blogspot.com/2011/08/yorkshire-post-23488.html

YESTERDAY'S NEWS TODAY

Oliver is away, but he asked me to remind you that on this day in 1929 the actor Windsor Davis was born, he was in Terrahawks, Carry On films and a Doctor Who story during the 60s.

Dinosaur-Era Mammal Possibly "Mother" of All Humanity
Twenty rare Siamese crocodiles hatch in zoo
Map highlights world’s most threatened coral reefs
Mosquitoes 'disappearing' in some parts of Africa
Amphibian disease research yields weapon
Female seals drawn to deadly ship propellers
Darwin's Butterflies? Spectacular Species Radiation in the Caribbean Studied With 'DNA Barcoding'

Seems appropriate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBU-MxydbWQ

SATURDAY POSTS FROM DALE DRINNON: Dragons, Bigfoot and the fall of Phaethon

At The Frontiers of Anthropology:
http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2011/08/fall-of-phaethon-by-gunter-bischoff.html

At The Frontiers of Zoology:
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/08/more-discouraging-revelations.html

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/08/ancient-babylonian-and-assyrian-dragons.html

A CLEVER, IF SNEAKY PIECE OF JOURNALISM

On Sunday I received two photographs from the Daily Star. They asked me to identify them, and after consulting with Darren Naish, Jonathan McGowan and two vets (Aurelia and Shosh) I wrote the following email to the newspaper:

'Hi Marc,

Sorry to have taken so long to get back to you. Having checked with a zoologist, a big cat tracker and a vet we think it is a large domestic cat, probably a Russian Blue, or a crossbreed with Russian blue ancestry.

Jon'

The article, when it appeared, made no mention of my email but wrote:

A British wildlife organisation said it had proof the animals were still alive and well in Britain.
And Jonathan Downes, director for the Centre for Fortean Zoology in Devon, said: “We know there were lynx living in Britain 1,500 years ago, but could they still be here?”

I did actually say that a few days earlier, it is true, but it was in answer by a question from a different journalist, from a different paper, and in answer to questions about the lynx that Max discovered in the vaults of Bristol Museum. So whilst technically the newspaper has done nothing wrong at all, it performed a clever piece of journalistic prestidigitation with that quote.

And they didn't even have to hack my telephone to get it.