Thursday, January 25, 2007

Rodent Discovered in 1999 Makes News Today

The news reports state that this is a new discovery, impying recent, as in this year or late last year. Yet this little fella was first discovered in 1999. Not to recent. Lets see counting on my fingers that is eight years ago. And it is only making headlines today.

A strikingly unusual animal was recently discovered in the cloud-forests of Peru. The large rodent is about the size of a squirrel and looks a bit like one, except its closest relatives are spiny rats.

This illustration depicts Isothrix barbarabrownae, a newly discovered species of Neotropical rodent, in its arboreal habitat. The strikingly unusual animal has long dense fur, a broad blocky head, thickly furred tail and a blackish crest of fur on the crown, nape and shoulders. It is about the size of a squirrel. (Credit: Illustration by Nancy Halliday, Courtesy of The Field Museum)

Isothrix barbarabrownae, as the new species has been named, is described in the current issue of Mastozoología Neotropical (Neotropical mammalogy), the principal mammalogy journal of South America. A color illustration of the bushy rodent graces the cover of the journal.

The authors of the study found the rodent in 1999 while conducting field research in Peru's Manu National Park and Biosphere Reserve Mountains in Southern Peru along the eastern slope of the Andes. Extending from lowland tropical forests in the Amazon Basin to open grasslands above the Andean tree line, Manu is home to more species of mammals and birds than any equivalently sized area in the world.

This is not the only ancient rodent recently discovered. In fact they are bursting out all over the world. And this may not be a new animal at all but another case of a living fossil.



See

Living Fossil

They Walk Among Us

Blonde Lobster, No Joke

Lost and Found


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Van Helsing I Presume

It seems that the fictional character Van Helsing had a historical basis in fact. According to this photo essay from Pravda. Not a wooden stake amongst all the items. Apparently this kit first appeared on Ebay last year.


01/25/2007
Photo-report (6 photos)



And along with the Movie don't forget the rock opera; Van Helsing's Curse
and the horror pastiche The Many Faces of Van Helsing;
and of course the comic; Tomb of Dracula.

See:

Vampire

Gothic Capitalism Redux

Pope Embraces Orthodox Church

Goth


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Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Virgin Birth Announced


Scientists hail Komodo dragon's virgin birth

Oh were you expecting something else?

Like maybe about some Man-God and his mother.

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And it was orginally expected for her to give birth at Christmas....oh well a month late.....

It is as if Dr Ian Malcolm from Steven Spielberg’s cult classic Jurassic Park has been vindicated.

His statement ‘Life always finds a way’ rings true today as Flora, the virgin komodo dragon prepares to give birth to little dragons in the Chester Zoo, United Kingdom. Seven baby komodo dragons are due this festive season. So what is so special about the birth of these little ones? Flora conceived them without any male help.

Other reptile species produce asexually in a process known as parthenogenesis. But Flora’s virginal conception and that of another komodo dragon earlier this year at the London Zoo, are the first times it has been documented in a komodo dragon. The reptiles, renowned for their intelligence, are native to Indonesia. They are the world’s largest lizards and have no natural predators – making them survive at par with snakes and lions at the pinnacle of the animal kingdom.

The cases of Flora and the London lizard, Sungai, are described in a paper published in the magazine Nature.


Parthenogenesis is a process in which eggs become embryos without male fertilization. It has been seen in about 70 species, including snakes and lizards. Scientists are unsure about whether female komodo dragons have always had this latent ability to reproduce or if this is a new evolutionary development.



See

Snakes Alive

Virgin

Animals



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Dion Back Tracks On Afghanistan


It was only a month ago, when Stephane Dion running for Leadership of the Liberal Party declared he opposed the use of Canadian Troops to fight in Kandahar.

Today, well he would like to know more about the Afghanistan Mission, gee maybe he should check his cabinet notes, since it was the Liberals who sent them.


Meanwhile his second in command the warmonger Iggy says;

when asked if he could contemplate any circumstance in which Liberals would call for the withdrawal of Canadian troops.

"I can't see any,'' Ignatieff told reporters.

He said there is "absolutely clear water'' between the Liberal and NDP positions.

"Our position is we support the mission, we support the troops but we have very strong questions about the way the mission is being handled and managed.''

Gee thats not what Gerard Kennedy said during that same leadership race.

Liberal Leadership Rivals On Afghanistan


Yep "clear water", clear as mud. Turpitude continues to swirl around the issue of Afghanistan for the government, her majesty's loyal opposition and the BQ.

The NDP remains the only party consistant on their position of the Harpocrites War.


See:

Liberal Leadership Race

Afghanistan



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Prehistoric Bi-Plane

There are no new ideas, just old meme's.

125 million years before Kitty Hawk there was Microraptor gui
iTWire - 23 Jan 2007
By Stan Beer. A small winged dinosaur called Microraptor gui may well have been nature's predecessor of the famous flight of Wilbur and Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk in 1903.
Fossil sheds new light on evolution of flight Houston Chronicle
Dinosaur may have resembled the biplaneSeattle Post Intelligencer

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See

Dinosaurs

Fossils



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STFU

I guess the Harpocrite honeymoon with the White House is officially over.

American Ambassador David Wilkins is slamming Canada's efforts to have Maher Arar removed from a U.S. security watch list.

Mr. Wilkins says it's “a little presumptuous” for Mr. Day to say “who the United States can and cannot allow into” their country.


Memo to US Amabasador David Wilkins;

When a suit is before the courts and it involves the government which you represent one normally says;

" I am sorry I cannot comment, this matter is before the courts."

Please take note and STFU.



See

Arar



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Nessie?

Could this mysterious prehistoric dinosaur shark be the creature behind the Nessie mythos? That is the idea of sea serpents even if they are in fresh water.

It certainly qualifies as a 'sea serpent' , and proves that factual experiences underlie the sea serpent mythos.

Another living dinosaur like the Sturgeon and the
Coelacanth , and another entry for my cryptozoology files.

Japanese marine park captures rare 'living fossil' shark

A species of shark rarely seen alive because its natural habitat is 600 meters or more under the sea was captured on film by staff at a Japanese marine park this week.

The Awashima Marine Park in Shizuoka, south of Tokyo, was alerted by a fisherman at a nearby port on Sunday that he had spotted an odd-looking eel-like creature with a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth.

Marine park staff caught the 1.6 meter long creature, which they identified as a female frilled shark, sometimes referred to as a "living fossil" because it is a primitive species that has changed little since prehistoric times.

Frilled sharks, which feed on other sharks and sea creatures, are sometimes caught in the nets of trawlers but are rarely seen alive.

Prehistoric Frilled Shark

Frilled sharks can grow to a length of nearly 6.5 feet and eat deep-sea squids and other soft-bodied preys.


See

Nessie was an Elephant?


They Walk Among Us


Shark

Cryptozology Part 1

Cryptozoology Part 2

Dinosaurs

Fossils


Monsters



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The Horror

Proud of his prowess as a butcher

This is the horror of Robert Picktons mass murder of 49 wome
n in the Vancouver area. He was a pig farmer and butcher, what did he do with the womens bodies?

Accused serial killer Robert "Willie" Pickton butchered his victims after killing them A number of bones mixed with debris and manure were found in the farm's slaughterhouse in July 2002, court heard.

Lovecraftian horror
registers in the the minds of the public about this case. It is more than being about mass murder and a serial killer, it is about cannibalism whether real or imagined. And as Lovecraft pointed out on his essay on the Horror in Supernatural Literature, the imagined horror is far worse.

Pickton continued his trade as a butcher, of women and animals. A 'respected trade' unlike that of the women he butchered, according to some rightwing bloggers.

Except contrary to the popluar reporting in the media, not all the women were sex workers. One at least was a bartender. Another respectable trade. And the fact is whatever streets they walked, or line of work they were in, he killed them because they were women.


See:

Crime

Jack The Ripper


Murder

Violence Against Women





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Get Over It

Me thinks they protest too much.

Canada owed an apology
Hamilton Spectator
By Robert Howard. It is something quite unusual to hear Stephen Harper, Stephane Dion and Jean Charest speaking virtually in unison.

French politician defends Quebec comments

PM decries remarks by French politician

PM, Dion slam remark on Quebec

Quebec 'gaffe' causes Royal grief

French presidential candidate backtracks on support for Quebec


P'shaw, what a bunch of verbal diarrea, and political drivel.

After all Royal only expressed her opinion of what Quebecois meant to her and 'all of France', since she is a socialist and the last French President to say the same thing; Charles de Gaulle was not.

Following a 15-minute meeting in Paris yesterday with Parti Québécois Leader André Boisclair, Ms. Royal was asked by reporters what affinity she felt toward Quebec sovereignty. "It goes with our common values, which are Quebec's sovereignty and freedom," she replied.

After all the Canadian Parliament accepted Quebec as a Nation, which is what France did a long time ago.

Chickens, home, roost.

People, stones, glass houses.

Tempest, teapot.


Vive le Québec libre !





See

Quebec

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What He Didn't Say

Boy this was a flashback, he just rehashed last years State of the Union speech, talking about the same issues.

Bush State of the Union: Work with me

What he didn't say anything about was the Post Katrina reconstruction of New Orleans and Mississipi which is as big a boondoggle as the reconstruction of Iraq.

Thanks to privatization and contracting out promoted by the White House.

Unless you consider his reference to temporary workers as being a sneaky way of saying reconstruction will commence once he has enough migrant labour.

Bush took the opportunity to again push his idea of a temporary worker program and treat those who want to come to America "without animosity and without amnesty."


See

Katrina


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