– – In Runaway Bay, Texas a man found what he believed to be a chupacabra lying near hole 14 of a golf course! It’s a brown, hairless animal with inch-long toes, curved claws, long hind legs, and oversized canine teeth.
It’s neither a dog, nor a coyote…the smart money says that it’s a hairless raccoon, based on the feet, skull structure, and ears…
– -Thank you, esteemed readers, for enabling Foxsylvania to reach 80,000 hits!- – Your readership is appreciated!
– – Controversial animal testing for cosmetics manufacturers could soon be replaced by a new technology which uses laboratory-grown human skin cells to simulate the body’s allergic response to foreign chemicals.
The standard method for testing allergic reactions involves applying chemicals to the ears of mice or guinea pigs, which are later killed and dissected for study.- – Kinda a “no-win” situation for rodents…
The new method would use a glass chip with human skin cells and chemicals which simulate the body’s immune system. When a foreign substance is dropped onto the chip, the cells and chemicals interact to mimic the human’s body’s natural allergic response. A working prototype by Hurel Corp. funded by L’Oreal is in the works, and could be in use by next year…
– – Is it here yet?- -Is it here yet?- –You gotta excuse me if I sound like Eric Cartman or perhaps Bart Simpson, but I just can’t wait for the February 12, 2010 arrival of The Wolfman. – – Can you blame me?!
The cast of the 1941 original was awesome, with Lon Chaney Jr, Claude Rains, and Bela Lugosi on board, but this remake will have Anthony Hopkins, Benecio Del Toro (the Wolfman), Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving, and Art Malik. Universal is striving to re-image their classic horror masterpiece, and from all I have read, does a great job! Ain’t no school like the old school…
So bring on the slavering man-beast, and let’s do something dastardly and perhaps scandalous to fair maidens as they run through the moors!- –Let’s go where the wolfbane blooms, and the autumn moon shines at night!- –Heck, I wanna live there!
– – Forget that dinosaurs didn’t live happily alongside cavemen, and that there was no genus “Snorkosaurus;” just relax and enjoy the presence of Dino (pronounced DEE-no) the dinosaur on The Flintstones. Acting more like a labrador retriever than a reptile, Dino barks, slobbers, romps, and cavorts, especially when Fred Flintstone arrived home from a long day at the slate quarry…
The cat on The Flintstones, BTW, was called Baby Puss, and was basically a saber-toothed tiger, who was more than smart enough to lock Fred out of the house when he attempted to put Baby out for the night. Sadly, Baby Puss was largely seen during the closing credits… 
– – I, for one, was rather disappointed when MonsterQuest chose to kick off their new season with an episode on great white sharks, hoping instead for a thought-provoker on some cryptid, even if they had to re-visit one covered previously. Now I know that great whites are awesome predators, but they’re not quite in the same category for me as say, Bigfoot or the Jersey Devil. I don’t want MonsterQuest to become Wild Kingdom.
The points were well-taken, however, that sharks are not just mindless eating machines, but rather show evidence of premeditated attacks which they can adapt to circumstances. Additionally, sharks have been known to engage in practice attacks in which they kill but don’t eat their prey. Sharks are, in short, more sophisticated beasties than we give them credit for being, and there’s much about them that we don’t yet know.
The “shark cam” was successfully attached and interesting, although the device was overbuilt and didn’t remain on for as long as hoped due to the drag factor. The device shows much promise with a re-design and a smaller housing.
As a horrifying sidebar, a Zimbabwean tourist was recently killed off a Cape Town South African Beach by a great white shark described as being “longer than a mini-bus.” The shark attacked the victim three times, with others bathers only about 15 meters away. Remains are not expected to be found. A raised black flag (pictured) reminds bathers that beaches around Cape Town remain on full alert following the attack…
– – Part plant and part animal, a sea slug found living in salt marshes in New England and Canada called Elysia chlorotica is the first multicellular animal found to be able to produce the plant pigment chlorophyll. The critters can actually survive without food if a light is shined on them for twelve hours a day.- -Now that’s walkin’ on sunshine!
The slugs appear to acquire this ability by stealing genes from algae that they’ve eaten, stealing also minute cell parts called chloroplasts which enable conversion of sunlight into energy.
The slug has been studied for about twenty years, although scientists are not yet sure how the animals appropriate the genes that they need. This is yet another example of how invertebrates can do some pretty amazing things…well, let’s see you live without food! 😉
– – In the earlier 20th century and prior to that time when dirt roads, horses, and cattle were more prevalent in life than they are now, every child and adult had worms in their gastrointestinal tract! These worms were part of the ecosystem of the gut, and aided in controlling human immune reactions in order that they might live successfully in people. In the last 100 years or so, a more hygienic environment was created for people which led to immune disregulation, and so, one theory would have it, to an increase in certain immunological diseases. A more sedentary lifestyle and a lack of physical activity also renders people more prone to certain illnesses and ailments to a degree not seen in the past.
Such immunological and metabolic diseases and conditions may include multiple sclerosis, type I diabetes, asthma, obesity, and even hay fever (now suffered by 1 in 4 people in the United States). Improvements in hygiene have reduced infections, but along with that have reduced exposure of the immune system to antigens, such as compounds from viruses and bacteria. Bodily regulation mechanisms then tend to become less effective, and certain illnesses and conditions are suffered to degrees not seen in the past.
(…but I’ll still pass on the worms, thank you!)
– – Gumby’s creator Art Clokey died Friday at the age of 88. The shape-shifting little green flexible guy grew out of a student project Clokey produced at the University of Southern California in the early 1950’s called Gumbasia, which led to shorts featuring Gumby and his horse friend Pokey, who seemed to be a practical, reality-based equine.
Gumby’s swooping head was based on the cowlick hairdo of his father, and Clokey’s wife suggested that he give Gumby the body of a gingerbread man. Gumby eventually became one of the most familiar toys of all time, although his creator didn’t allow merchandising for seven years after Gumby was on the air, not wanting parents to think they were exploiting their children. Clokey also created the moralizing and often satirized claymation duo, “Davey and Goliath” for the Lutheran Church, using the money gained to help bring a Gumby series back to television in the 1960’s. “Moral Orel” on Adult Swim is one such satire of the Lutheran Church contracted work, described as “Davey and Goliath meets South Park.”
Eddie Murphy brought a surge in Gumby’s popularity in the 1980’s with his send-up of the character on Saturday Night Live, who Murphy depicted as profane and cigar-smoking. Clokey, however, said he enjoyed Eddie Murphy’s portrayal.
As Eddie Murphy’s character might have said , “My creator dead?- -Dammit!” (pardon my French…) 😉
– – How cold is it in Florida?- -Cold enough so that iguanas are dropping off the trees!
Scientists say that when temperatures drop below 40 degrees, so do the iguanas; they essentially go into hibernation in order to survive! This fact has spawned at least one urban legend of a guy who collected some stunned iguanas and put a bunch of them in the back seat of his car, thinking them dead. – –Well, when he ran the heat in his car, the iguanas came back to life, probably asked to be driven to Taco Belle, and began crawling all over things, to catastrophic effect- -or at least so the story says!
Meanwhile, more than 140 Florida sea turtles have washed up on the shores within a 48-hour period, stunned by the cold. The turtles simply become lethargic, can’t swim anymore, and wash up on shore. The Florida Aquarium is helping some of the turtles survive…
At least we have stunned iguanas raining from trees to talk about until the new season of MonsterQuest begins!
FOXSYLVANIA 
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