March 2010

  • Mermaids Among Us?

    By erika on 3/31/10 12:29pm
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    I was charmed by the recent Destination Truth episode in which the team went mermaid-hunting.  So often in cryptozoology there is a distinct split between "animals that could be real" and "the work of fantasy."  Unicorns, for example (actual unicorns, not just goats with one horn or narwhals) are obviously fantasy animals, right?  No cryptozoologist worth their snuff would go off hunting unicorns.

    I would have put mermaids in the "purely fictional" category, except that the small Israeli town of Kiryat Yam reports that a mermaid is stalking their waters.  I use the word "stalking" because even though she hasn't hurt anyone, she is said to have a giant mouthful of razor-sharp teeth.  Scary!


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  • Destination Truth Finds A Mermaid?

    By erika on 3/29/10 12:39pm
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    In last week's episode of Destination Truth, the team captures some very interesting footage off the coast of Israel!  Lured by the promise of a $1 million payoff for capturing proof of a mermaid, Gates and crew travel to the coastal town of Kiryat Yam, Israel.  (Did they really fly back and forth, as the episode asserts?  Because not for nothing, but they were just IN Israel the week before, you know?  Doesn't it seem like… well, never mind, what do I know?)

    Several people have sighted a mermaid in the warm seas off Kiryat Yam.  Although admittedly "sighted" may be too strong a word.  One man they interview says that he felt the presence of something in the sea below him as he swam, and that something brushed up against his leg.  Well, okay; way to hear hoof beats in Central Park and think "zebra"!


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  • A Plague of Grasshoppers

    By dfunzy on 3/29/10 7:57am
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    A plague of grasshoppers. No, not little kids learning kungfu. Serious. Grasshoppers like in locust.

    As if the economy and the people of the United States of America don't have enough problems. Now, today, March 29, 2010,  The Wall Street Journal, in a report warns us to expect a plague of locust this spring. Locust? Grasshoppers.

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  • Destination Truth, "Ghosts of Masada/The Leprechaun"

    By erika on 3/22/10 3:35pm
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    Perimeter alert! Lepre-cow!Perimeter alert! Lepre-cow!This premiere episode for the second half of Destination Truth's third season might actually be perfect.  It highlights all the show's strengths, with only one small thing I would have done differently if I was in charge.

    In the first half of the show, the team travels to Israel to investigate reports of general hauntiness at the Masada fortress.  This World Heritage Site is possibly home to the most unsettling backstory of any Destination Truth location so far.  

    In the year 66, a group of Jewish rebels took shelter in Masada.  The Roman army lay siege to the stronghold, from an encampment on the desert floor.  The Romans slowly built a giant earthwork ramp by hand.  When they finally ascended the ramparts, they discovered that all 960 of the Jewish rebels had committed suicide rather than be captured.


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  • Mammals of the Past

    By sarajean on 3/14/10 10:39pm
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    Have you ever watched Ice Age (or either of its sequels) and wondered, “What the hell kind of animal is that, anyway?” I certainly have. Sometimes I wish there had been a prehistoric animals course available at my high school or even in college; it would have been so much fun to learn more about these animals that we’ll never be able to see live.

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  • MonsterQuest: Giant Killer Bees!

    By erika on 3/11/10 8:13pm
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    Killer Bee, OH NO RUN!!!!Killer Bee, OH NO RUN!!!!It's not just killer bees, by the way - it's GIANT killer bees!  Oh man, I love this show.  We open with a description of Africanized honeybees as "mutant beasts" which are the result of "a science experiment gone wrong."

    As we all know, Africanized honeybees are an aggressive hybrid bee, which resulted from a cross between African honeybees and their mild-mannered counterpart, the European honeybee.  Neither bee is native to North America.  (Many people are surprised to learn that there are no native North American honeybees - only European honeybees which have gone feral.  We do have other native bees, including bumblebees and orchard mason bees, but no native honeybees.)  


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  • Enter The Geep!

    By erika on 3/9/10 4:07pm
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    Lisa the GeepLisa the GeepIn the world of hybrid animals, we have horses and donkeys getting together to create mules, and lions and tigers getting together to create ligers.  Both of these hybrids are fairly common, because their source species (like horses and donkeys) are not very far apart, evolutionarily speaking.

    However, goats and sheep are quite unrelated.  They may look similar to the untrained eye, and serve similar purposes in the barnyard ecosystem, but sheep have only 54 chromosomal pairs, while goats have 60.  Goats and sheep belong to different genera, goats being from the genus Capra and sheep being from the genus Ovis.  


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  • MonsterQuest, "Giant Pythons in America"

    By erika on 3/5/10 3:13pm
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    First of Burmese PythonBurmese Pythonall, kudos to MonsterQuest for fixing the video player on their website.  It's nice to be able to catch up to the show on the official website, instead of having to track episodes down on YouTube.  If there's something weird about the sound on the commercial breaks, so be it.

    "Giant Pythons in America" is one of the most delicious MonsterQuest episodes to date.  The show establishes itself right out of the gate by using the phrase "slithering menace" to describe escaped Burmese pythons.


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