Friday, March 22, 2013
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Alien Invaders: Armadillos in the Midwest | Show Me Oz
Alien Invaders: Armadillos in the Midwest | Show Me Oz: Surprisingly enough, armadillos also like to swim. By taking in large amounts of air into their lungs to make them more buoyant, they can easily dogpaddle for some distance. If that doesn’t strike you as odd, what may is the fact that when these bulky, armor-plated desert dwellers are faced with a body of water they actually prefer to walk across the bottom while holding their breath, which they can do for up to six minutes.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
"De-extinction"
Some scientists want to bring back long dead animals. (Scientists Want to Bring Some Animals Back from Extinction - Yahoo! Finance) (Odd this article was listed in the "finance" section.) This is called "de-extinction." Dinosaurs are not on the list of creatures these Mad Scientists would like to bring back from the dead, but not for the obvious reasons, one being: Jesus Fucking Christ, they're dinosaurs!! Did you SEE Jurassic Park?! but because the dinosaur DNA is too "degraded." However, "ethics" or really "criteria" are a part of the process for deciding what gets reconstituted:
They chose the animals using the following criteria: Are the species desirable — do they hold an important ecological function or are they beloved by humans? Are the species practical choices — do we have access to tissue that could give us good quality DNA samples or germ cells to reproduce the species? And are they able to be reintroduced to the wild — are the habitats in which they live available and do we know why they went extinct in the first place?"Beloved by humans?" Dodos seem pretty cute to me but who can say; that seems hardly the point. And how can one possibly be sure a reactivated animal could be safely introduced into the wild? Astounding that there are conferences where mad scientists gather to seriously ponder such possibilities.
The article includes a list of potential animals on the Dr. Evil Wish List. Among them: the DoDo, the Wooly Mammoth, the saber-toothed cat, and that Fortean mascot, the Thylacine.
The Dodo and the Quagga, among others, were hunted to extinction by man. Will these animals be brought back, only to have that happen again? Will it be legal to hunt these animals? Is it moral to bring back animals just so we can use them for our enjoyment, for example, open "De-extinction canned hunt camps?"
Monday, March 11, 2013
binnallofamerica.com
I have new Trickster's Realm posted at Tim Binnall's site. It's of birds and art:
binnallofamerica.com: 2012: Year of the Birds, and the Self-Indulgent
New Year's 2012 brought the Fortean realm tons of dead and dying bird stories. The phenomena seemed to have started in the southern states of the U.S., (Beebe, Arkansas) but we saw stories from all over the world of birds falling from the skies. A common explanation from the MSM: fireworks. New Year's celebrations, complete with fireworks going off to bring in the New Year, startled birds from their perches. Disoriented, they fell to their deaths. Other explanations included birds drunk on fermented berries and bad weather.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Anya is a Channel: Throw these architects in the brig!
Anya Briggs has some thoughts on all those hundreds of dolphins that appeared in Southern Calif. seas recently: Anya is a Channel: Throw these architects in the brig!
Nick Redfern's World of Whatever...: The Cult of the Moon Beast
Followed the link to Nick Redfern's blog from the Anomalist -- after all, who can resist the title "The Cult of the Moon Beast?" So go here Nick Redfern's World of Whatever...: The Cult of the Moon Beast and read all about it.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Thousands of Dolphins Spotted Near San Diego | NBC 7 San Diego
Thousands of Dolphins Spotted Near San Diego | NBC 7 San Diego: Thousands of dolphins spanning across 7 miles of ocean were sighted off the coast of San Diego on Thursday, a boat captain told NBC 7 San Diego.
Capt. Joe Dutra of Hornblower Cruises said he saw a “super mega-pod” of common dolphins Thursday around noon while he was on his daily tour. He said the pod was more than 7 miles long and 5 miles wide.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Mass Animal Deaths
Sad and strange list of mass animal deaths worldwide. Mainly sea life, which is chilling, for that's clearly a signal to us all about the quality of our oceans.Mass Animal Death
Opinion: Florida’s Great Snake Hunt Is a Cheap Stunt
Agreed.
No one wants to find a python in their kitchen one morning while stumbling around trying to get the coffee made.
But mass hunts like this, which are actually blood lust fueled sprees to satisfy the basest traits within humanity, are not the answer.
No one wants to find a python in their kitchen one morning while stumbling around trying to get the coffee made.
But mass hunts like this, which are actually blood lust fueled sprees to satisfy the basest traits within humanity, are not the answer.
Opinion: Florida’s Great Snake Hunt Is a Cheap Stunt: I registered as a python hunter but I did not really intend to hunt pythons. I wanted to see my first wildlife rumble, a fight between snake haters and animal rights activists, something along the lines of those protesters who dress up as wolves or polar bears, or who splash fake blood onto Canadian politicians to protest clubbing seal babies.I was surprised by the following:
Instead I discovered something resembling a scene in the film Jaws—not the one where the town hires a seasoned shark expert to go out and kill the great white, but the ridiculous scene where every idiot with a pitchfork and an inner tube is paddling out to get a piece of shark meat.
I met contestants who had never seen a Burmese python before, who had never handled a snake. I overheard one man telling some greenhorns from Maine that his technique is to swing a snake by the tail and slam its head into a tree. "It stuns 'em," he said.
The Nature Conservancy showed up, but they're a partner in the Python Challenge, a contrast to their own python control program, and provided the training materials.
Debate Continues: Did Your Seafood Feel Pain?
Debate Continues: Did Your Seafood Feel Pain?: The scientific debate on the subject has intensified recently, with a team of British researchers proposing this month that electroshock tests suggest crabs indeed feel pain. But the study has drawn scrutiny, while another study late last year pushed back on the idea that fish, more closely related to humans than are crabs, feel pain.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Fortean Times:Runaway Deer In Chelmsford: Woman Injured
From Fortean Times, this incident in England of a deer "hurdling" a woman:Runaway Deer In Chelmsford: Woman Injured
Indiana couple fights charges over rescuing injured baby deer | Fox News
Indiana couple fights charges over rescuing injured baby deer | Fox News. "Drop Charges Against Connersville Police Officer," on Facebook.
Couple saved a dying deer they found on private property, now they face 60 days in jail, the"putting down" execution of the deer, and a $500.00 fine.
Couple saved a dying deer they found on private property, now they face 60 days in jail, the
Friday, February 1, 2013
Non-Bigfoot Blood Lust
Just my personal little war on a Bigfoot blog that shall not be named nor linked to, but once again I see they have posted footage (vintage TV) of someone killing a deer with his bare hands and drinking its blood, or some such. Details don't matter. What does matter is that this has nothing to do with Bigfoot, and everything to do with animal porn, to drive visitors to their site. Not the first time they've posted this type of blood lust crap; won't be the last. Their excuse, as they once posted, was something along the lines of (paraphrasing, naturally) "Bigfoot probably eats like this in the wild so why not it's all good."Disingenuous bullshit.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Coon Dong: Root and Bone Apothecary
If you need a raccoon penis bone for you spell doings, here's the place:Root and Bone Apothecary
Monday, January 14, 2013
Dogs: The Latest in High Tech Para-tainment
My new Trickster's Realm column is up now at Tim Binnall's place. Be sure to read all the great columns over there. Plus, Greg Bishop is the most recent audio guest. Lots to explore at Binnall of America:
binnallofamerica.com: Animals react to the strange in their own eerie ways. UFO lore, ghost tales and Bigfoot stories are full of examples of how their animals, mainly dogs, reacted to "something." Something usually unseen by the human witness. Barking wildly at something out there. Or, cowering under the bed. Cats hiss and flee, sometimes the family dog takes off and is never seen again. Sometimes their bodies are found; tragic demise; from Sasquatch?
Dogs, cats and other animals alert us to something...something alien, something ghostly, something definitely weird. We watch and listen to the animals, waiting, wanting, hoping to see what they see. Often times we never do see what it is they're reacting to. We just know they are. We too often sense something is wrong, something is there, and heed the animals in our lives, listening to their anomalous responses to this ... something.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
11 killer whales free after being 'locked' in ice, mayor says - World News
11 killer whales free after being 'locked' in ice, mayor says - World News
Eleven killer whales that were “locked in” by ice in a Canadian bay, with only a small area of open water for them to surface, are now apparently free, possibly due to a change in current that helped break open a path to the sea, the mayor of a nearby village said Thursday.
Two scouts sent to check on the killer whales around 8 a.m. local time found a passage of water had been created in Hudson Bay all of the way to the open sea – nearly 25 miles away -- and the ice hole that the marine mammals had been trapped in was empty, said Petah Inukpuk, mayor of Inukjuak, a remote Inuit village home to 1,800, in Quebec.
“They are free. They are no longer here. When there is a new moon, the water current is activated. It could have helped … completely trap them, but in this case it caused an open passage out to the open water,” he told NBC News, adding that they probably were freed overnight. “It was mother nature that helped them. ... They are no longer icelocked.”
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Birdsong Stirs Birds' 'Emotions' Much As Music Affects Humans, Brain Imaging Study Suggests
Of course they do!
Birdsong Stirs
Birds can sing. They can dance. And they may even experience an emotional response to music similar to humans.
A new study from Emory University in Atlanta found that when birds hear birdsong, their brains show activity similar to that seen in humans when they listen to music.
Birdsong Stirs
Birds' 'Emotions' Much As Music Affects Humans, Brain Imaging Study Suggests
Birds can sing. They can dance. And they may even experience an emotional response to music similar to humans.
A new study from Emory University in Atlanta found that when birds hear birdsong, their brains show activity similar to that seen in humans when they listen to music.
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