– – True Story: In Bulgaria, a red fox took on a vulture that was two times his size! Despite the size advantage, the fox was much stronger, and the vulture beat a hasty retreat!
So the fox prevailed…all the while looking good while doing it! 😉
– – In the realm of body art and bodily modification, there are those who kind of press the envelope, and move in the direction of more radical transformations. One such person is Lizardman Erik Sprague…
Lizardman is quite intelligent, and at one time was a Ph.D. candidate in philosophy. He currently boasts approximately 700 hours of tattoo work dating back to 1994, leaving him with a disconcerting green, reptilian-skinned appearance. Additional bodily modifications include a split, bifurcated tongue and teeth filed to a point. For all of that, Erik, currently age 37, considers his startling transformation only about 80 percent complete.
A self-proclaimed “professional freak,” Sprague is a permanent performer whose repertoire includes sword swallowing, fire-eating, and other dangerous stunts. He generates additional income through appearances at Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museums and other events. The Lizardman has also recently penned Once More Through the Modified Looking Glass, and is a sane, rational, and thoughtful individual…
– – Not only Good Time Charlie gets the blues; canines do, too!–Well, at least they seem to be capable of obsessive-compulsive disorder…
…the January issue of Molecular Psychiatry reports that scientists have located a gene for obsessive-compulsive disorder among certain canine breeds, especially Dobermans and bull terriers. Up to 70% of some litters have OCD tendencies, compared to only 2% in the human population. In canines this might be behaviorally manifested by such things as chasing their own tail or sucking on their own body parts.
Dogs with such behaviors are more likely to express a CDH2 gene. Located on chromosome 7, that gene mediates communication between neurons in the brain. The gene is located in the hippocampus in both humans and dogs.
So why should you care?–Well, the canine-human link could lead to preventive medicine and better treatment for obsessive disorders in both species. The CDH2 gene may also be implicated in autism spectrum disorder as well. The National Institute of Mental Health is conducting its own study, looking for the CDH2 gene in blood samples of human OCD patients; this would be the first confirmed psychiatric gene in humans, possibly with others to follow.
Neuropsychiatry promises to be a real growth field in the future, or so this fox thinks, and I’m crazy like one…
– – Whenever I hear of killer bees, I think of that wonderful old Saturday Night Live sketch with the original cast and their tacky but hilarious get-ups…bobbing antennae and all!
I’m less fond of the more mundane MonsterQuest episodes featuring such things as feral dogs, underground rats, and yes, killer bees. It strikes me that the series is stretching for material on such episodes, expanding and sensationalizing what they have. Killer bees are a rather old saw at this point, and only the beekeeping forums were buzzing about this one.
Don’t get me wrong; bees are awesome insects, kinda nature’s Borg collective. Like the pythons featured in the previous episode, they’re expanding their range, and can adapt to colder northern environments by doing things like “clustering,” grouping together in the central core of their hives to conserve and share heat.
The episode just lacked the shock and awe factor of the cryptid episodes, and is more like something I’d expect on National Geographic than The Quest…
– – A Wilkes-Barre dog groomer who pierced the ears and necks of kittens to market them on eBay as “Gothic kittens” for hundreds of dollars will soon be facing trial on animal cruelty charges…
Prosecutors say she inflicted pain on the felines to make money, while attorneys for the woman said she didn’t act maliciously. The woman contends that she used sterilized needles, made sure the kittens were healing properly, and didn’t intend to hurt them…
…I hope they throw the book at her!
– – The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence may have gotten more difficult as communications technology improves, and the Earth becomes “quieter” as a result…
…Earth used to churn out a loud mess of radio waves, television signals, and other radiation, but more communications traffic is now relayed by satellite and fiber optic cables, which tends to limit the “leakage” of such signals into space. The recent switch from analogue to digital television also uses a far weaker signal. If similar processes are taking place in other technologically-advanced societies, they too are presumably becoming quieter and would be more difficult to find. Additionally, alien cultures might have a bad impression of us from exposure to shows sent their way such as Gilligan’s Island.
A new avenue for contacting ET might be to use lasers to send ultra-bright flashes of light into space for mere fractions of a second. Such pulses could theoretically be seen by advanced civilizations up to 1,000 light years away, with infrared versions of such devices capable of sending beams even further.
This of course presupposes that alien civilizations would want to get in touch with us to begin with!
FOXSYLVANIA 
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