Cryptotourism

Johor: The Other Side

Last Wednesday, as part of Zainul Arifin’s column, this editorial appeared: DATUK Sazmi Miah, please don’t rain on our parade. We want our Bigfoot, real or otherwise, please. The parliamentary secretary to the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said there was no evidence – droppings or hair samples, for examples – to suggest the Johor Bigfoot existed. It is a hoax, Sazmi declared. He also said that since we have only found single footprints, the creature can’t be hopping on one foot all this while. He has a point there, unless of course, Bigfoot is actually a one-legged creature, or [...]

Not Quite Gone?

As widely reported today, the search for the baiji – the "Chinese river" or "white-flag dolphin" – declared extinct last week is not finished. UPI notes: "We will try every effort to save them as long as it is not announced to be extinct," said Wang Ding, head of the search team and vice director of the hydrobiology institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The dolphin is unique to China’s Yangtze River, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. If determined to be extinct, the white-flag dolphin will be the first cetacean on record to be driven to extinction by [...]

Going, Going, Gone

The traveling exhibition, Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale, Noon-5 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday; closes Wednesday, December 20, 2006. H&R Block Artspace at Kansas City Art Institute, 16 E. 43rd, Kansas City, Missouri (816-561-5563).

The Top Cryptofiction Books of 2006

The Top Cryptofiction Books of 2006 by Loren Coleman, Author of Mysterious America. In 1998, Craig Heinselman of New Hampshire and editor of Crypto coined the word "cryptofiction." The term refers to any literary work that has cryptozoology or a cryptid or groups of cryptids as the major theme or central focus. What are the most noteworthy new works of cryptofiction published in the last twelve months? Five completely different kinds of novels and one graphic novel – all cryptofiction contributions – gain recognition here for the Year of 2006. These selections are so diverse that they occupy their own [...]

Johor Wars: How About All The Tracks?

The Malaysian Natural Resources and Environment Ministry Parliamentary Secretary Datuk Sazmi Miahis is fighting with Johor’s Tourism and Environment Committee Chairman Freddie Long over the “reality” of the “Johor Bigfoot.” The debate has turned ugly in the papers in Malaysia on December 16th. Forgotten in the debate, apparently, are all the footprints, confusing as the picture may be, that have been found, including ones dating back to the 1970s of the Orang Dalam. This track, photographed on November 17, 2006, is the “one” mentioned my Minister Sazmi. But what of the others? See below. According to the New Straits Times, [...]