On this day in 1978 The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was first broadcast.
And now, the news:
The Bulgarian 'Loch Ness Monster': the Water Bull of the Rabisha Lake
Mice infest UK's Westminster Palace in London
Question of the weekend: Should we clone Neanderthals?
Oldest 'writing' found on 60,000-year-old eggshells
That’s ‘egg’-straordinary.
(if you thought that pun was bad I should warn you that Easter is on the way so there’ll be plenty more where that came from….)
Monday, March 08, 2010
Sunday, March 07, 2010
EXCITING FIND!
The other day in Sainsbury's I happened to notice a newspaper I'd not seen before, and on the front cover was a large mock photo of a UFO blasting a crop circle into a field, alongside the headline 'TOP SECRET UFO FILES RELEASED.'
Okay, it's not that exciting a find, but I was pretty excited at the time because it was just possible that I could use the story for one of my daily blogs. However, I haven't had a chance to actually read the newspaper until today. Upon closer inspection I learnt that First News is actually an 'award-winning weekly newspaper for kids.' I was gutted.
But...
I decided to read it, anyway, and found an absolute wealth of stuff! The ordinary Press for adults might have interesting Fortean stories in it from time to time but this paper had LOADS because kids aren't all that interested in economic policy (though there is a little of that as well).
The UFO article did indeed turn out to be a non-starter: in a nutshell, the Ministry of Defence have released another trenche of reports.
On page three, however, the question was asked in bold red type: 'Do elephants have a secret language?' Apparently scientists have been analysing the noises made by eight elephants in San Diego Zoo. Microphones placed on the pachyderms' bodies picked up low-frequency growls that can't be heard by human beings. The sounds are being compared to the actions elephants were performing at the time of the recordings and the final conclusions have yet to be drawn.
More from First News tomorrow. Now I'm off to buy a lollipop....
Okay, it's not that exciting a find, but I was pretty excited at the time because it was just possible that I could use the story for one of my daily blogs. However, I haven't had a chance to actually read the newspaper until today. Upon closer inspection I learnt that First News is actually an 'award-winning weekly newspaper for kids.' I was gutted.
But...
I decided to read it, anyway, and found an absolute wealth of stuff! The ordinary Press for adults might have interesting Fortean stories in it from time to time but this paper had LOADS because kids aren't all that interested in economic policy (though there is a little of that as well).
The UFO article did indeed turn out to be a non-starter: in a nutshell, the Ministry of Defence have released another trenche of reports.
On page three, however, the question was asked in bold red type: 'Do elephants have a secret language?' Apparently scientists have been analysing the noises made by eight elephants in San Diego Zoo. Microphones placed on the pachyderms' bodies picked up low-frequency growls that can't be heard by human beings. The sounds are being compared to the actions elephants were performing at the time of the recordings and the final conclusions have yet to be drawn.
More from First News tomorrow. Now I'm off to buy a lollipop....
LINDSAY SELBY: The Nittaewo
The Nittaewo (sometimes spelt without the 'a' or as 'Nittevo') were said to be a small tribe of small bigfoot- or yeti-type homins. Pliny the Elder mentioned the Nittaewo as a small, hairy tribe of people living in the country of Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka). They lived at the same time as the Veddha.
The Veddha tribe still live, mainly as farmers, on the island of Sri Lanka and their legends say they are responsible for wiping out the Nittaewo roughly 250 years ago. According to the Veddha tradition recorded by Frederick Lewis in 1914, the Nittaewo were approximately three feet (1 metre) tall, the females being shorter than the males. They walked erect, had no tails and were completely naked. Their arms were short and they had talon-like nails; lived in trees, caves and crevices; and caught and ate small animals like the hare, squirrel and tortoise.
They lived in groups of 10 or 20 and their speech was like the twittering of birds. They were said to be exterminated in the late eighteenth century by the Veddhas because both tribes were constantly fighting and the Nittaewo began to take the Veddha’s children. The elders of the Veddhas decided that something had to be done. The Nittaewo were trapped in a cave, which the Veddhas blocked the entrance to with wood and set it ablaze, killing all that remained of the Nittaewo.
In 1887 British explorer Hugh Nevill documented recent tales of the warfare occurring between the Veddhas and the Nittaewo, the Nittaewo being extinct at this point in time. In the 1940s British primatologist W. C. Osman Hill published reports about the Nittaewo. He led an expedition into the region in 1945 and found widespread belief in the Nittaewo still being alive on the island. He concluded that Dubois’s Pithecanthropus erectus of Java, also known as the Java Ape Man, which has since been renamed Homo erectus, matched the traditions and descriptions of the Nittaewo.
Captain A. T. Rambukwella theorised that the Nittaewo may have been a species of Australopithecus, described as small, man-like apes who stood erect and had a bipedal gait. He led an expedition to the Mahalenama area in search of the Nittaewo in May 1963. During an excavation of a cave at Kudimbegala they discovered, at a depth of ten inches (25cms), the vertebrae of a monitor lizard and a piece of a carapace of a star tortoise, both said to be part of the diet of the Nittaewo.
Recently the following came to light:
Dr Salvador Martinez, a Spanish anthropologist, claimed to have had the opportunity to spot the Nittaewo. The encounter took place in Sri Lanka in 1984, though only now has it been made known. The Nittaewo had a human appearance, its body appeared covered with a coat of long hair, and in some areas it showed signs of scabs. Despite the time that had elapsed, the anthropologist remembers that the Nittaewo began to emit unintelligible sounds before fleeing toward the denseness of the forest.
However, people have said he was mistaken and it was simply a local to the area, from a Nomad tribe. In October 2004 the discovery of the fossils of a proposed new species of the genus Homo, Homo floresiensis, from the Indonesian island of Flores, further gave weight to the idea of small human or ape-like species living amongst us in previous times.
* Hill, W. C. Osman (1945). "Nittaewo, an Unsolved Problem of Ceylon." Loris, 4, 251-62, Colombo.
* Lewis Frederick Notes on an exploration in Eastern Uva and Southern Panama Pattu. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Ceylon. 1914
* Nevill Hugh The Nittaewo of Ceylon. The Taprobanian. 1886
* Rambukwella Captain A.T. The Nittaewo - The Legendary Pygmies of Ceylon. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Ceylon, 1963
The Veddha tribe still live, mainly as farmers, on the island of Sri Lanka and their legends say they are responsible for wiping out the Nittaewo roughly 250 years ago. According to the Veddha tradition recorded by Frederick Lewis in 1914, the Nittaewo were approximately three feet (1 metre) tall, the females being shorter than the males. They walked erect, had no tails and were completely naked. Their arms were short and they had talon-like nails; lived in trees, caves and crevices; and caught and ate small animals like the hare, squirrel and tortoise.
They lived in groups of 10 or 20 and their speech was like the twittering of birds. They were said to be exterminated in the late eighteenth century by the Veddhas because both tribes were constantly fighting and the Nittaewo began to take the Veddha’s children. The elders of the Veddhas decided that something had to be done. The Nittaewo were trapped in a cave, which the Veddhas blocked the entrance to with wood and set it ablaze, killing all that remained of the Nittaewo.
In 1887 British explorer Hugh Nevill documented recent tales of the warfare occurring between the Veddhas and the Nittaewo, the Nittaewo being extinct at this point in time. In the 1940s British primatologist W. C. Osman Hill published reports about the Nittaewo. He led an expedition into the region in 1945 and found widespread belief in the Nittaewo still being alive on the island. He concluded that Dubois’s Pithecanthropus erectus of Java, also known as the Java Ape Man, which has since been renamed Homo erectus, matched the traditions and descriptions of the Nittaewo.
Captain A. T. Rambukwella theorised that the Nittaewo may have been a species of Australopithecus, described as small, man-like apes who stood erect and had a bipedal gait. He led an expedition to the Mahalenama area in search of the Nittaewo in May 1963. During an excavation of a cave at Kudimbegala they discovered, at a depth of ten inches (25cms), the vertebrae of a monitor lizard and a piece of a carapace of a star tortoise, both said to be part of the diet of the Nittaewo.
Recently the following came to light:
Dr Salvador Martinez, a Spanish anthropologist, claimed to have had the opportunity to spot the Nittaewo. The encounter took place in Sri Lanka in 1984, though only now has it been made known. The Nittaewo had a human appearance, its body appeared covered with a coat of long hair, and in some areas it showed signs of scabs. Despite the time that had elapsed, the anthropologist remembers that the Nittaewo began to emit unintelligible sounds before fleeing toward the denseness of the forest.
However, people have said he was mistaken and it was simply a local to the area, from a Nomad tribe. In October 2004 the discovery of the fossils of a proposed new species of the genus Homo, Homo floresiensis, from the Indonesian island of Flores, further gave weight to the idea of small human or ape-like species living amongst us in previous times.
* Hill, W. C. Osman (1945). "Nittaewo, an Unsolved Problem of Ceylon." Loris, 4, 251-62, Colombo.
* Lewis Frederick Notes on an exploration in Eastern Uva and Southern Panama Pattu. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Ceylon. 1914
* Nevill Hugh The Nittaewo of Ceylon. The Taprobanian. 1886
* Rambukwella Captain A.T. The Nittaewo - The Legendary Pygmies of Ceylon. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Ceylon, 1963
Saturday, March 06, 2010
OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today
http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/
On this day in 1876 Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the invention of the telephone. Although Bell was the first to transmit sound via undulatory electrical current the concept of the telephone and early models that transmitted sound by other means were first developed by Antonio Meucci, who had neglected to properly patent his invention because he could not afford the $10 fee.
Dinosaur-eating snake discovered
Odd snake appears in 400-year-old painting
Mystery Behind Dinosaur Demise 'Revealed'
Hen thinks it's a dog and adopts puppies
You know what’s coming whenever chickens are mentioned:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL_-1d9OSdk
On this day in 1876 Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the invention of the telephone. Although Bell was the first to transmit sound via undulatory electrical current the concept of the telephone and early models that transmitted sound by other means were first developed by Antonio Meucci, who had neglected to properly patent his invention because he could not afford the $10 fee.
Dinosaur-eating snake discovered
Odd snake appears in 400-year-old painting
Mystery Behind Dinosaur Demise 'Revealed'
Hen thinks it's a dog and adopts puppies
You know what’s coming whenever chickens are mentioned:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL_-1d9OSdk
MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: LAKE MONSTERS AND METEOROLOGY PART TWO
Hello again. Today I am going to continue with my look at meteorological explanations for lake monster sightings.
Following on from Terence Meaden's study of water spouts as a possible explanation for these lake cryptids in an 1976 issue of The Journal of Meteorology, Sir Peter Scott also looked at the same subject in The Journal of Meteorology volume 2 number 13 p.19 in an essay titled Devils and the Loch Ness Monster 1: Some Questions.
In this essay Scott says: 'I am very much interested in your article in the Journal of Meteorology, vol 1 no. 4 pp.118-124, and agree that it may be the explanation of a number of Loch Ness sightings. It may be worth following up a few details, if data exist, to answer the following questions -'
Sir Peter then goes on to ask what meteorological conditions were like on the date of the sighting on the Loch. 'Also, what sort of tracks do the water devils take and how do they relate to wind direction? Do they produce `humps` on the water and also, do they give the impression of a body with humps? Finally, could the water devils create a long column of water that looks like the neck and head of the Loch Ness Monster?' (1)
Meaden replied in the same issue of the journal by explaining that various types of weather fronts, e.g. sea breeze fronts, could produce the conditions necessary for a water spout. He then says he would welcome a list of 'recent unexplained sightings' of the Loch Ness monster in an attempt to analyse the meteorological conditions at the time. He then goes on to say that the passage of land devils and water spouts can alter local temperature….`the direction of motion of the water-devil might be expected to bear some relation to the wind direction of the new air mass….
'It is unlikely that two or three water-devils would appear in line in such a way as ever to be mistaken for a `body` with a number of `humps` . It would appear to be possible for a water-devil to produce a long, narrow, solid-looking column of water that could fit the description of the head of the Loch Ness monster, especially if it should pass over and levitate flotsam such as water-weed or other vegetable matter… Most of the `monster` sightings which have been made on the waters of Loch Ness may eventually be accounted for in a number of different ways, and some of them may indeed prove to be animal in origin, but it is nevertheless considered that the meteorological mechanism proposed here is pertinent to at least a few of the sightings. From time to time, water devils have been seen, and recognised as such, on other lakes and rivers, so that watchers on Loch Ness should be prepared as well to meet similar phenomena at, albeit, infrequent intervals.' (2)
1.Sir P.Scott Devils and the Loch Ness Monster: 1:Some Questions. The Journal of Meteorolgy vol.2 no13 Nov 1976 p.19
2. G.T.Meaden. II: The Reply Sent to Sir Peter .The Journal of Meteorology vol.2 no.13 Nov.1976 pp 19-21
The Alarm Third Light
Your head on my shoulder
Two months you`ve been a soldier
I feel so sick inside
Two months you`d have been alive
So no one here knows your surname
No one knows from where you came
The red cross takes you to your grave
For which your government kindly pays
White cross upon the hillside
There lies that unknown soldier
No one can remember your name…
Following on from Terence Meaden's study of water spouts as a possible explanation for these lake cryptids in an 1976 issue of The Journal of Meteorology, Sir Peter Scott also looked at the same subject in The Journal of Meteorology volume 2 number 13 p.19 in an essay titled Devils and the Loch Ness Monster 1: Some Questions.
In this essay Scott says: 'I am very much interested in your article in the Journal of Meteorology, vol 1 no. 4 pp.118-124, and agree that it may be the explanation of a number of Loch Ness sightings. It may be worth following up a few details, if data exist, to answer the following questions -'
Sir Peter then goes on to ask what meteorological conditions were like on the date of the sighting on the Loch. 'Also, what sort of tracks do the water devils take and how do they relate to wind direction? Do they produce `humps` on the water and also, do they give the impression of a body with humps? Finally, could the water devils create a long column of water that looks like the neck and head of the Loch Ness Monster?' (1)
Meaden replied in the same issue of the journal by explaining that various types of weather fronts, e.g. sea breeze fronts, could produce the conditions necessary for a water spout. He then says he would welcome a list of 'recent unexplained sightings' of the Loch Ness monster in an attempt to analyse the meteorological conditions at the time. He then goes on to say that the passage of land devils and water spouts can alter local temperature….`the direction of motion of the water-devil might be expected to bear some relation to the wind direction of the new air mass….
'It is unlikely that two or three water-devils would appear in line in such a way as ever to be mistaken for a `body` with a number of `humps` . It would appear to be possible for a water-devil to produce a long, narrow, solid-looking column of water that could fit the description of the head of the Loch Ness monster, especially if it should pass over and levitate flotsam such as water-weed or other vegetable matter… Most of the `monster` sightings which have been made on the waters of Loch Ness may eventually be accounted for in a number of different ways, and some of them may indeed prove to be animal in origin, but it is nevertheless considered that the meteorological mechanism proposed here is pertinent to at least a few of the sightings. From time to time, water devils have been seen, and recognised as such, on other lakes and rivers, so that watchers on Loch Ness should be prepared as well to meet similar phenomena at, albeit, infrequent intervals.' (2)
1.Sir P.Scott Devils and the Loch Ness Monster: 1:Some Questions. The Journal of Meteorolgy vol.2 no13 Nov 1976 p.19
2. G.T.Meaden. II: The Reply Sent to Sir Peter .The Journal of Meteorology vol.2 no.13 Nov.1976 pp 19-21
The Alarm Third Light
Your head on my shoulder
Two months you`ve been a soldier
I feel so sick inside
Two months you`d have been alive
So no one here knows your surname
No one knows from where you came
The red cross takes you to your grave
For which your government kindly pays
White cross upon the hillside
There lies that unknown soldier
No one can remember your name…
Crypto-gardens
How many of you are so devoted to your selected field of cryptozoology that your very home is decorated as such?Those of you who have been to Myrtle cottage for Weird Weekend in the past or seen photographs will know that there are some decidedly Fortean decorations about the place. Now, however, we will all be able to do our gardens out to celebrate our favourite cryptids and other monsters.
American company Design Toscano have been manufacturing the crypto-world's answer to the humble garden gnome for the past ten years, according to a recent article in the Metro.
Some of the Illinois company'
s most popular creations include the yeti (Richard F. will no doubt be pleased to see it's not white), dragon, 'grey' alien and the top half of a zombie's body, which you can place on your compost heap to look like it is struggling to get out.If I had a garden, I'd buy them all!
Why can't local newspapers be this good?
This cutting is from the Los Angeles Herald, September 2nd 1906, and it arrives on the bloggo courtesy of Richard Muirhead. What else can we say?
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