The Return of Bownessie!

Posted February 18, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: cryptozoology, strange, strange happenings, unexplained, unidentified
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– – Last September, we had posted about Bownessie, possibly a distant relative of the Loch Ness monster native to Lake Windermere, England’s largest lake.   A recent eighth sighting of the creature in the past five years has produced the clearest photographic image yet of the elusive cryptid, revealing a creature with oily black skin and three eerie humps.

The unidentified animal was judged to be about the size of three cars by the 24-year-old kayaker and his companion who observed it, and it moved at approximately 10 miles an hour with each hump demonstrating a rippling motion.

Skeptics remain unconvinced that something of the size attributed to the creature could exist in the 11 mile long lake.  Echo sounding surveys conducted each month have revealed nothing, nor have two prior sonar scans.   A lake ecologist feels that the aquatic beast could be an Eastern European catfish misjudged as to size.  A hoax cannot be ruled out as the file size of the photo, taken on a camera phone, is too small to really tell if it had been altered on Photoshop or not…

Comments: 5 Comments

Mice for Airport Security?

Posted February 16, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal behavior, animals, science
Tags:

– – We had earlier mentioned the possible use of genetically-modified plants to detect explosives in passenger screenings at airports.  Two Israeli scientists have advanced,  however, that mice may also suffice.

Specially-trained mice have been found capable of detecting faint traces of explosive residues.  When canisters of trained mice are placed in a device and exposed to such scents, they flee to a secondary compartment, setting off an alarm.  Mice actually have more scent-receptor genes than canines, and don’t require constant human interaction.   A rat-down is accordingly a viable alternative to a pat-down.

A mouse-employing scanner manufactured by BioExplorers is less invasive than full body scanners, but requires maintenance of the mice as well as cleaning of their cages…

 

Comments: 2 Comments

Not Mickey’s Twisted Cousin…

Posted February 13, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, cool things, furry spirits, music
Tags: ,

– – I don’t know a lot about progressive and house dance music, but I know what I like, and Toronto-based electro sensation Deadmau5 (pronounced “dead mouse”) often performs in costume that includes a giant stylized mouse head , usually red in color and with strobing eyes, although I prefer the black variant, evil maus (shown above left).–Someday, perhaps more icons will be furry!

His album, For Lack of a Better Name (2009) is a personal fave, with “Moar Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff” playfully creepy and hauntingly memorable with a repeating funereal theme!  It’s great stuff for those of us who like Halloween year-’round!–Rock on!


Comments: 2 Comments

GE’s “The Electric Cattle!”

Posted February 11, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, furry, television
Tags: ,

– – In one of several GE commercials for their Ecomagination campaign, we are shown “cows in concert,” touting the company’s use of Biogas Technology using, err, waste from cows and landfills to generate energy.  These cows are the rock stars at a concert that they are powering, and we are shown their hooves working a bass drum pedal, hitting a cowbell (–what else?) with a drumstick, and working a mixing panel slider.

At the end of the clip, one of the bovines even takes to trying a little crowd surfing…very mooving!

Comments: 3 Comments

Magnificent Mentos Spider!

Posted February 9, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: animals, Brilliant but twisted, cool things, insects, Invertebrates, television
Tags: , ,

– – Short of Peter Parker, you aren’t going to find an arachnid as breathtaking as the Mentos Rainbow pack spider! The commercial introduces us to a young couple sitting in their living room when suddenly the female goes ballistic, shrieking and recoiling on their couch.  The view shifts to the carpet, where we are shown…a spider!- –What is it with chicks and spiders, anyhow?!

Anyways, the guy responds by dutifully going to deal with the spider, extending a finger, possibly to crush the inoffensive creature.  The extended digit is all our eight-legged hero needs, however, to demonstrate his profound mastery of Jujutsu or perhaps Aikido, grasping the human’s finger and throwing him like a rag doll across the room no less than three times! A shelving unit and coffee table are splintered in the fracas!  The wrath of the spider is awesome, and the human is hopelessly outclassed!

In the closing images, we see the grounded human’s body dragged forcefully across the floor presumably by the amazing arachnid as the announcer intones, “It’s better to know what’s coming next!” It’s not revealed what fate awaits the human female, but I doubt things will go well for her, either…

…Bravo, I say!  Long may this arachnid martial arts master live and prosper!


Comments: 2 Comments

Year of the Rabbit

Posted February 7, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal behavior, animals, furry
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– – According to the Chinese zodiac cycle, we are now into the Year of the Rabbit, a fact which has booted sales of rabbits in Asia and elsewhere.   Animal rights group PETA is urging consumers to forgo adopting rabbits as household companions on a whim, however, warning that the animals are often abandoned once their novelty wears off.

Rabbits aren’t just cute and fluffy, you see, but are high maintenance animals which require significant resources, equipment, attention, and veterinary care.  The group also points out that rabbits have fragile bones, require lots of exercise, and tend to gnaw on everything on sight, making them less than ideal pets for all but the most patient of owners.

Comments: 2 Comments

Wrecking Bunny Ad…

Posted February 4, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: absurdities, animals, furry, plushies, strange, strange happenings
Tags: ,

We all know that it’s important to use the right tool for the right job, and H&R Block illustrates this fact in a recent commercial by showing us a demolition crew trying to take  down a brick building with a 16-foot-tall pink and white bunny…predictably, it doesn’t go too well.  Clearly, a plush bunny is not good for demolition, even a really big one.

In the “wrecking bunny” ad, people gathered at a demolition site “ooh” and “ahh” as the bunny is raised by a crane and swung toward the building.  There’s a muffled thump as the bunny impacts with the unyielding brick, crews wince, and spectators plod away with dejected looks on their faces as they realize that the plushy is not going to take the building out.

It’s an absurdist type thing, but I wind up feeling vaguely sorry for the bunny, wondering if they’re going to keep bashing him into the wall until his poor stuffing pops out; the plushy doesn’t seem to mind, however, and maintains his slight smile…what a trooper!- -Is this abuse of a plushy?- -Can’t someone rescue him?!  He just needs a good, loving home, admittedly one with a lot of space.

Perhaps in the future we’ll see other inappropriate tools used on the wall, like an enormous marshmallow or a gigantic cream-filled donut!

Comments: 2 Comments

Artificial Meat!

Posted February 2, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: cool things, research, science, strange
Tags: , ,

– – Eat your cruelty-free artificial meat…for once, no animals were harmed in its creation!

This isn’t that awful tofu, soy, or gluten stuff, either…nope, this artificial meat, also known as vitro meat or cultured meat is animal flesh that has never been part of a complete, living animal!  In vitro meat is laboratory-grown meat using animal stem cells that would be placed in a medium to grow and reproduce.  The result would mimic flesh and could be cooked and eaten.   Potentially, any animal’s muscle tissue could be grown through the in vitro process.

Some scientists say the technology is almost ready for commercial use and simply needs a company to back it.  Cultured meat is currently prohibitively expensive, but it is anticipated that the cost could be reduced to about twice as expensive as say, conventionally-produced chicken.  Some promising steps have been made towards the technology, but we’re still a few years away from having in vitro meat available to the general public.

PETA is offering a one million dollar reward to the first scientist to produce and bring in vitro meat to market…and the first generation products would most likely be minced meat.- -That’s right, think Spam, vienna sausages, etc…yummers! Meat grown in vats may be necessary, however, to feed the nine billion people who are expected to be alive by the year 2050…

Comments: 3 Comments

Bomb-Sniffing Plants!

Posted January 31, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: Brilliant but twisted, science, strange
Tags:

– – Will bomb-sniffing plants guard the airports of the future?- -One can only hope so!- -Consider the possibilities!

Audrey II:- – Hold it, Towel-head the Terrorist!  You ain’t boardin’ that flight, not on my watch, no sir-eee!- -Feed me, Security!- -HAHAHA!

Achmed the Terrorist:- – By the beard of the Prophet, I am undone! –Aieee!

Normally on Foxsylvania, we consider fauna, not flora…but this is too cool to pass up!  Researchers at Colorado State University have manipulated a plant so that it turns white when it detects even trace amounts of TNT in the air.  The plant has been genetically rewired so that chlorophyll drains off from the plant, leaving it a stark white when specific materials are detected.  The redesigned plants are also 100 times more sensitive than a bomb-sniffing dog!

While the plant currently has a response time of several hours, it is hoped that this can be refined to a few minutes over the next several years, and that such plants could serve as sentinels at airports in the future…

Comments: 2 Comments

Fur Wars…

Posted January 29, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: absurdities, animals, movies
Tags:

– – Even the Dark Lord of the Sith is no match for the Power of the Fur!


Comments: 2 Comments

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