Men in Cryptozoology

Van Roosmalen Temporarily Released

Chad Arment has passed along the news that the mammalogist and cryptozoologist Marc Van Roosmalen is out of prison on appeal. A Brazilian judge on Tuesday [August 7, 2007] ordered that a prominent Dutch scientist be freed from prison while he appeals his conviction for environmental crimes and embezzlement, a court official said. Marc Van Roosmalen was convicted on June 15 of trying to illegally auction off the names of monkey species, keeping rare monkeys at his house without authorization and selling a scaffolding donated to the National Institute for Amazon Research where he worked. He was sentenced to 15 [...]

Happy Birthday Debunker of Yeti!

Today, July 20, 2007, Sir Edmund Hillary is 88 years old. Hillary’s name will always be linked, in my mind, to his World Book Encyclopedia-supported trek to Nepal in 1960, supposedly, to search for the “Abominable Snowman.” In reality, it actually allegedly was more about a spy mission against the Chinese, hidden in the media glare of a debunking Yeti expedition. The members of Hillary’s team (1) bought a bear skin that was declared to be a Yeti’s so it could be revealed to be a bear’s, (2) obtained a ritual religious object known to be made in imitation of [...]