October 2009

  • Michio Kaku and String Theory

    By becksta on 10/31/09 5:07pm
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    Michio Kaku is a physicist renowned for both his contributions to string theory and his books on physics, which offer those interested in the strange and unusual ways of Quantum Physics an entry point in understanding. I recently read an interview with him in Fate Magazine and was fascinated by his book “Parallel Worlds” which seemed to me to be an explanation of the physics behind one of my favorite childhood books, “A Wrinkle in Time”.

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  • Chupacabra Video?

    By erika on 10/26/09 5:10pm
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    ChupacabraChupacabraI just ran across some video which CNN aired last month, of a supposed chupacabra found in Texas.  You can watch the video here and make your own decisions - personally, I am 110 percent sure that this is a coyote with mange.

    We have seen this problem before, with coyotes, bears, foxes, and raccoons.  Although most cases of mange result merely in a patchy (or "mangy" if you will) coat, some cases can be so extreme that the animal loses every single hair on its body.  These poor suffering animals - who look quite alien by this point - are then driven to unusual lengths in order to get a meal.  Like raiding a rancher's barn, as happened with this Texas incident.


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  • Preparing for the End of the World: A 2012 Checklist

    By lafeeverte on 10/17/09 1:21am
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    As 2012 fast approaches and the predictions of Nostradamus, the Mayan calendar, the Hopi Indians, Edgar Cayce, and the Jewish calendar have us all dancing foot to foot with antici........... pation, it might be a good time now to examine a few necessarys that may come in handy in the event of Armageddon. Exciting times! Let's break it down.

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  • Breaking News! What Happened to Balloon Boy?

    By lafeeverte on 10/15/09 1:33pm
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     Homemade flying saucer balloon lands without its 6-yr old stowaway!Homemade flying saucer balloon lands without its 6-yr old stowaway!

    Earlier this morning, a 6 year old boy lifted off in Fort Collins, Colorado in a homemade balloon constructed to look like a flying saucer. The boy's father and he had been working on it for months, constructing the large 20 x 5 ft helium balloon from mylar and thin plywood.

    The balloon had been anchored to their home with a long rope and this morning his older brother watched him climb inside and take off. Shortly thereafter, the flying saucer shaped silver balloon was witnessed by local citizens, rising several thousands of feet in the air over eastern Colorado.

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  • Really Big Birds: Roc, Thunderbird, and Cryptids

    By erika on 10/15/09 12:34pm
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    Really big birds are an interesting category in cryptozoology.  Most people consider these to be nothing but fictional legends, the simple up-scaling of existing large birds like bald eagles and condors.  It certainly doesn't take much imagination to invent "something just like that bird over there, only bigger."

    However, there are also vexing reports of really big birds which occasionally surface every few years.  Cryptozoologists speculate that some of these reports could be sightings of surviving pterodactyls (which went extinct X million years ago), or of teratorns (which went extinct only 6,000 years ago).  Teratorns were larger relatives of the condor, and lived in North America.  Many excellent examples of teratorns have been recovered from the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles.


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  • Jack the Ripper Identified?

    By sarajean on 10/13/09 9:47pm
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    An historian claims he knows the true identity of Jack the Ripper, and we can all take heart: it isn’t Elvis, Nixon or Michael Jackson.

    Apparently the man behind the Whitechapel murders was named Robert Mann, a morgue attendant who has been identified through “modern police forensic techniques.” Whatever these are, they are said to include psychological and geographical profiling.

    All of that said, can we really claim that ol’ Jack has been discovered without say, I don’t know, DNA evidence? Even death row inmates are cleared when the right DNA is finally matched to a crime; how can a case over a century old be suddenly solved without it?

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  • Muntjac or Capybara? Another English Mystery Animal

    By erika on 10/13/09 3:14pm
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    Is it just me, or is England positively infested with random bizarre animals?  Most of the "beast" sightings are presumed by many people to be escaped or released exotic cats like leopards and panthers.  Do these animals get released more often in England?  Is it just that England is so much more crowded than the United States, so these animals are more likely to be seen?

    At any rate, Cryptomundo is reporting on a new mystery animal being spotted in England.  A number of spotters believe that it is a capybara, the world's largest rodent.  However, a local naturalist believes that the sightings are in fact of muntjac, the world's smallest deer.

    What the what?


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  • Walking Sam - An Interesting Lesson in Cryptozoology

    By erika on 10/7/09 6:07pm
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    Cryptomundo has a really interesting article about "Walking Sam," a cryptid or paranormal phenomenon I hadn't previously heard of.  The article quotes Mike Crowley, a man who was attending a Tribal Council meeting of the Sioux in South Dakota.

    An elderly woman stood up at the meeting and asked for official help with Walking Sam.  She described Walking Sam as "a big man in a tall hat."  His appearance is connected to teen suicides; according to the woman, he causes them.  She asked for additional police foot patrols in the area.

    Bigfoot has been sighted in the Dakotas, so there is that legacy to keep in mind.  But as Crowley himself points out, the story of Walking Sam could also be "a plea for help with teen suicides - a plea that needs to be translated through a cultural filter."


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