UK
1. Haunted Skies Volume One by John Hanson and Dawn Holloway (3)
2. The Great Yokai Encyclopaedia by Richard Freeman (5)
3. Haunted Skies Volume Three by John Hanson and Dawn Holloway (1)
4. Haunted Skies Volume Two by John Hanson and Dawn Holloway (2)
5. Grave Concerns by Kai Roberts (-)
6. Orang-pendek: Sumatra's forgotten ape by Richard Freeman (8)
7. Tetrapod Zoology by Darren Naish (8)
8=. Big Cats loose in Britain by Marcus Matthews (-)
8=. Dark Dorset by Mark North and Robert Newland (5)
8=. Dr Shuker's Casebook by Karl Shuker (-)
US
1. When Bigfoot attacks by Michael Newton (6)
2. The Cryptid Creatures of Florida by Scott Marlowe (3)
3. Orang-pendek: Sumatra's forgotten ape by Richard Freeman (-)
4. The Great Yokai Encyclopaedia by Richard Freeman (1)
5. The Inhumanoids by Barton Nunnelly (7)
6=. Monsters of Texas by Ken Gerhard and Nick Redfern (-)
6=. Extraordinary Animals Revisited by Karl Shuker (-)
8=. Haunted Skies Volume One by John Hanson and Dawn Holloway (-)
8=. Haunted Skies Volume Three by John Hanson and Dawn Holloway (-)
10. Haunted Skies Volume Two by John Hanson and Dawn Holloway (-)
Last month's positions in this pinky colour, which I think is called cerise. This was the best Christmas yet saleswise and certainly nothing even for Jon at his grumpiest to grumble about.
Thursday, January 05, 2012
OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today
http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/
On this day in 1942 Pan American Airlines became the first commercial airline to offer round the world flights. Not only was this a milestone in air travel but it’s rather interesting to note that they offered this service right in the middle of the Second World War at a time when the travel of most of the people who could afford it at the time may have been severely restricted.
And now the news:
Tiny Fish Filmed Mimicking Octopus That Mimics Fis...
Mighty arms helped extinct cats keep a mouthful of...
Annual manatee death count shows cold weather an u...
Northern quoll threatened by cane toads
Sea Shepherd finds whalers
Vets and conservation: helping to restore the bala...
Fly Parasite Turns Honeybees Into Zombies
Yeti Crabs & Ghost Octopus! Unique Life Found at 1...
Come on, sing along:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9MszVE7aR4&ob=av2e
On this day in 1942 Pan American Airlines became the first commercial airline to offer round the world flights. Not only was this a milestone in air travel but it’s rather interesting to note that they offered this service right in the middle of the Second World War at a time when the travel of most of the people who could afford it at the time may have been severely restricted.
And now the news:
Tiny Fish Filmed Mimicking Octopus That Mimics Fis...
Mighty arms helped extinct cats keep a mouthful of...
Annual manatee death count shows cold weather an u...
Northern quoll threatened by cane toads
Sea Shepherd finds whalers
Vets and conservation: helping to restore the bala...
Fly Parasite Turns Honeybees Into Zombies
Yeti Crabs & Ghost Octopus! Unique Life Found at 1...
Come on, sing along:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9MszVE7aR4&ob=av2e
DALE DRINNON: More from the Frontiers of Anthropology
Evidence for an Atlantean Empire Invasion of Europe and England
http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2012/01/evidence-for-atlantean-invasion-of.html
(Contemporary with Clovis)
And Atlantean Bananas, a reprint from an allied blog exactly as it was posted there, with my comment at the end:
http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2012/01/atlantean-bananas.html
KARL SHUKER: Making a homunculus
Even today, the alchemists of medieval times remain famous for their supposed (but unconfirmed) ability to transmute base metals into gold, using the fabled philosopher's stone.Less well-remembered, yet even more controversial, is their alleged artificial creation of tiny living humanoids - known as homunculi.
Read on...
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Some interesting snippets from the 1930 Volume of The Transactions of the Devonshire Association
My appeal for volunteers during the keynote speech at last year's Weird Weekend was answered by enthusiastic young couple Tim and Graidi Taylor-Rose. Every other Sunday they wind their way to Woolsery and do CFZ stuff that has been long overdue. This includes going through nearly a century's worth of the Transactions of the Devonshire Association, which are on loan to the CFZ from our old pal Lionel Beer
I have always been interested in freshwater jellyfish and the matter has come up on several occasions on these pages but I never knew that the first UK records of them in the wild were in Exeter....
Scientific Memoranda report 1930
In June, 1880, the late Sir Ray Lankester made known, through the pages of Nature, the discovery of a freshwater medusa that had appeared in the Victoria regia tank at the Botanical Society’s Gardens in Regent’s Park, and which he named Limnocodium sowerbii. It was supposed to have been conveyed from one of the great African lakes in the hydrosome (or polyp) stage on the rootlets of some plant.
Some years there were plenty of the medusae in the tank, other years scarcely any. Then it disappeared altogether. Later on furthe
r specimens were found in a tank at the
Sheffield Botanical Gardens. The medusae appeared and disappeared sporadically in tanks in Botanical Gardens in which the water was of about 70° F. The hydrosome stage was eventually found and described (Pro. Roy. S0c.,XXXVIlI,9). So far Limnocodium has been found in England only in artificial situations, but in Nature of January 4th, IQBO, Mr. Rupert Vallentin of Exeter, writes describing the occurence of the medusae in great quantities in the Exeter Ship Canal in the summer months of 1929. As the surface temperature of the water gradually lowered with the approach of autumn the medusae gradually disappeared, and after the middle of October none were to be found. The hydroid stage, which must exist in the canal, has not yet been found. Although both hydroids and medusae have been found in natural conditions (ponds, etc.) in N. America, this discovery of them in the Exeter Ship Canal seems to be the first time they have been observed in such conditions in Europe.
Later systematists have renamed the medusa Craspedacusta sowerbii against which protests have been made. Quite recently another species of freshwater medusa (Microhydra ryderi) has been found in a private freshwater aquarium at Bournemouth. The minute fixed hydroid stage of this was found in the aquarium also. G. T. HARRIS.
Cordylophora lacustris Allman
This interesting zoophyte was also discovered recently by Mr. Vallentin in the Exeter Ship Canal. It was originally discovered almost simultaneously in England and Belgium about 1854, and its great interest lies in the fact that it is a marine animal that has gradually adapted itself to a fresh-water environment within recent times. Carl Semper relates (Animal Life) that in his student days it was only known as a marine or brackish water species. Then it gradually ascended estuaries and adapted itself to fresh-water conditions. Even in Semper’s days it had appeared in the great water pipes of the city of Hamburg “ in such enormous quantities as to impede the flow of water through the pipes."
In England it was first found in the West India and Commercial Docks, and by about 1868 it had found its way, presumably by means of canal barges, into the Midlands, where it was established in the canals of Staffordshire. About 1890, or a little later, it was reported from the rivers and broads of Norfolk. I myself collected it from the river at Potter Heigham, about 1899, where it was growing profusely. It would be interesting to observe how far it proceeds up the Exe, the probability being that when it meets the strong current above Exeter, its further progress will be stayed. G. T. HARRIS.
I have always been interested in freshwater jellyfish and the matter has come up on several occasions on these pages but I never knew that the first UK records of them in the wild were in Exeter....
Scientific Memoranda report 1930
In June, 1880, the late Sir Ray Lankester made known, through the pages of Nature, the discovery of a freshwater medusa that had appeared in the Victoria regia tank at the Botanical Society’s Gardens in Regent’s Park, and which he named Limnocodium sowerbii. It was supposed to have been conveyed from one of the great African lakes in the hydrosome (or polyp) stage on the rootlets of some plant.
Some years there were plenty of the medusae in the tank, other years scarcely any. Then it disappeared altogether. Later on furthe
r specimens were found in a tank at theSheffield Botanical Gardens. The medusae appeared and disappeared sporadically in tanks in Botanical Gardens in which the water was of about 70° F. The hydrosome stage was eventually found and described (Pro. Roy. S0c.,XXXVIlI,9). So far Limnocodium has been found in England only in artificial situations, but in Nature of January 4th, IQBO, Mr. Rupert Vallentin of Exeter, writes describing the occurence of the medusae in great quantities in the Exeter Ship Canal in the summer months of 1929. As the surface temperature of the water gradually lowered with the approach of autumn the medusae gradually disappeared, and after the middle of October none were to be found. The hydroid stage, which must exist in the canal, has not yet been found. Although both hydroids and medusae have been found in natural conditions (ponds, etc.) in N. America, this discovery of them in the Exeter Ship Canal seems to be the first time they have been observed in such conditions in Europe.
Later systematists have renamed the medusa Craspedacusta sowerbii against which protests have been made. Quite recently another species of freshwater medusa (Microhydra ryderi) has been found in a private freshwater aquarium at Bournemouth. The minute fixed hydroid stage of this was found in the aquarium also. G. T. HARRIS.
Cordylophora lacustris Allman
This interesting zoophyte was also discovered recently by Mr. Vallentin in the Exeter Ship Canal. It was originally discovered almost simultaneously in England and Belgium about 1854, and its great interest lies in the fact that it is a marine animal that has gradually adapted itself to a fresh-water environment within recent times. Carl Semper relates (Animal Life) that in his student days it was only known as a marine or brackish water species. Then it gradually ascended estuaries and adapted itself to fresh-water conditions. Even in Semper’s days it had appeared in the great water pipes of the city of Hamburg “ in such enormous quantities as to impede the flow of water through the pipes."
In England it was first found in the West India and Commercial Docks, and by about 1868 it had found its way, presumably by means of canal barges, into the Midlands, where it was established in the canals of Staffordshire. About 1890, or a little later, it was reported from the rivers and broads of Norfolk. I myself collected it from the river at Potter Heigham, about 1899, where it was growing profusely. It would be interesting to observe how far it proceeds up the Exe, the probability being that when it meets the strong current above Exeter, its further progress will be stayed. G. T. HARRIS.
MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: THE MYSTERIES OF BUTTERFLY MIGRATION IN BURMA
The following story from the Hong Kong Daily Press appeared on August 2nd 1932 and is notably similar to an incident in the Arthur C. Clarke novel The Fountains of Paradise (Victor Gollancz. 1979)
MIGRATION OF BUTTERFLIES
STRANGE PHENOMENON IN BURMA
Two curious phenomena were observed in Magole on June 25, writes the Rangoon Gazette correspondent. One was a circular rainbow round the sun, a beautiful spectacle which is sufficiently rare. The other was a migration of butterflies which is a thing seldom seen, and which is known to occur especially among Catopaillia, or common whites. The species involved in the present migration were close to C.crocale and C. Scylla , and they poured along in vast numbers on a front of about a hundred yards. Other butterflies were associated with them, but their pottering movement was quite different to the swift and purposeful flight of the Catopailia.
Such migrations have been recorded from Ceylon, where, they occur usually in February and November. Flights which continued in the same direction for many days are mentioned in Forbes, who supposes that they arise from the necessity of finding new feeding grounds but it is more probable that this is nature`s mode of distributing the ubiquitous Whites (and Yellows), since the females certainly lay freely during their journey. In Ceylon such butterfly streams are supposed to flow towards Adam`s Peak, and it is interesting to note that in Sinhalese the word for a butterfly is very nearly the same as that for a Buddhist priest; the yellow butterflies being recognised as the spirits of departing monks going on pilgrimage to the Sacred Mountain. The appias, the Hebomoia, and a few of the Papilios also seem to I ndulge in regular migrations. (1)
1. Hong Kong Daily Press August 2nd 1932 p.12
Seeing as you`ve all been so good this year and in compensation for such a mild winter (in the U.K. at least), I present to you:
DEVO SNOWBALL
My baby took our love
And then she rolled it up
Rolled it up a hill
Like a ball of snow
Like a snow ball grows
Until it gets too big
Until she lost control
And it rolled back down
And it rolled back down
And it rolled back down
And it rolled back down
She took a tiny bit
And rolled it up again
She went a step to far
She had to let it go
I saw it go straight down
My baby turned around
Started up again
Started up again
Started up again
Started up again
Etc, etc
MIGRATION OF BUTTERFLIES
STRANGE PHENOMENON IN BURMA
Two curious phenomena were observed in Magole on June 25, writes the Rangoon Gazette correspondent. One was a circular rainbow round the sun, a beautiful spectacle which is sufficiently rare. The other was a migration of butterflies which is a thing seldom seen, and which is known to occur especially among Catopaillia, or common whites. The species involved in the present migration were close to C.crocale and C. Scylla , and they poured along in vast numbers on a front of about a hundred yards. Other butterflies were associated with them, but their pottering movement was quite different to the swift and purposeful flight of the Catopailia.
Such migrations have been recorded from Ceylon, where, they occur usually in February and November. Flights which continued in the same direction for many days are mentioned in Forbes, who supposes that they arise from the necessity of finding new feeding grounds but it is more probable that this is nature`s mode of distributing the ubiquitous Whites (and Yellows), since the females certainly lay freely during their journey. In Ceylon such butterfly streams are supposed to flow towards Adam`s Peak, and it is interesting to note that in Sinhalese the word for a butterfly is very nearly the same as that for a Buddhist priest; the yellow butterflies being recognised as the spirits of departing monks going on pilgrimage to the Sacred Mountain. The appias, the Hebomoia, and a few of the Papilios also seem to I ndulge in regular migrations. (1)
1. Hong Kong Daily Press August 2nd 1932 p.12
Seeing as you`ve all been so good this year and in compensation for such a mild winter (in the U.K. at least), I present to you:
DEVO SNOWBALL
My baby took our love
And then she rolled it up
Rolled it up a hill
Like a ball of snow
Like a snow ball grows
Until it gets too big
Until she lost control
And it rolled back down
And it rolled back down
And it rolled back down
And it rolled back down
She took a tiny bit
And rolled it up again
She went a step to far
She had to let it go
I saw it go straight down
My baby turned around
Started up again
Started up again
Started up again
Started up again
Etc, etc
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