Conspiracies

A Tiny Snake: Ethnoknown and Nationalism

The inhabitants of Barbados are mad as hell at Blair Hedges (above) and they want the world to know it. Recently mentioned here was the announcement of the finding of the world’s tiniest snake. However, long gone are the days of something that is ethnoknown and then calmly being “discovered” by scientists. Associated Press writer Danica Coto gets to the bottom of the story: A small snake has sparked a big debate in Barbados. Residents of the wealthy Caribbean nation have been heating up blogs and clogging radio airwaves to vent their anger at a U.S. scientist, who earlier this [...]

Joker’s Card, Jokawild, and Mothman

The Joker is wild. But so are a many other things overlapping with The Dark Knight. This is a Fortean piece, so if you were looking for something cryptozoologically pure, be afraid, be very, very afraid. The posting you are about to read contains twilight language musing and other treks on side streets you may have only rarely been down. Following my posting on “The Dark Knight Curse”, a phenomenon that was even discussed on CNN yesterday, some questioned whether or not the Joker is actually holding a “calling card” with a decapitated head. I was told that in the [...]

Hobbit Critic Accused of Financial Fraud

Hobbit critic Professor Teuku Jacob (above) passed away last October 17, 2007, and the critic of the new hominid species who took Jacob’s place as most outspoken is now in hot water.. Saying he sees the irony in his accusations of monetary gain for fame, one of the harshest skeptics of the claims that Homo floresiensis, the Hobbit, is a new species, biological anthropologist Maciej Henneberg has been accused of financial fraud. The Australian in their August 7, 2008 edition, has science writer Leigh Dayton laying out the facts of the case. The University of Adelaide researcher who accused the [...]

The Dark Knight Curse

A Batman beheading? Have people so quickly forgotten a recent tragedy? Heightened awareness of decapitations has occurred in the last few days due to the incidents in Brazil, Dubai, Greece, and, of course, the bus event in Canada (during the showing of The Legend of Zorro). Also, please note earlier The Mask of Zorro features Zorro’s/Diego’s brother’s beheading. In that Zorro movie, the decapitation is done by a sadistic, psychotic Texian Army Captain named Harrison Love. There remains no explanation of why the name “Badger” became the code word given to suspect Vincent Li of Edmonton, Alberta, by the law [...]

Not Bigfoot vs the IRS

When weird meets the IRS By Kathryn Skelton , Staff Writer Saturday, August 2, 2008 Loren Coleman wants to make it clear: This isn’t Bigfoot versus the Internal Revenue Service. Sure, Coleman, the author of books on [Bigfoot, cryptozoology,] Mothman and a field guide to lake monsters and sea serpents [& another field guide on Bigfoot], has spent the last year as the subject of an IRS audit. He first had to convince the federal government there is such a thing as cryptozoology; and that, yes, it’s possible to dedicate a museum to mostly yet-to-be-found creatures. But he’s trying to [...]