Disney and Marvel?

Posted September 12, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: cartoons, comics, furry causes
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Wolverine— Well, Disney has bought Marvel Entertainment for about four billion bucks…a fair piece of change by anyone’s standards.  The move will make Disney house owner of Marvel’s dazzling array of characters, and probably improve Disney’s appeal to males…

…one hopes that Disney will not neuter Marvel’s characters, and that we’ll never hear Wolverine sing, “When you wish upon a star.” –Will we see the Hulk School Musical?–Will Wolverine and Sabertooth have a song fight?–One suspects that Logan would not be pleased by this merger…

Comments: 3 Comments

Monster Freshwater Fish!

Posted September 11, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animals, rare animal, unexplained, unidentified
Tags: , ,

catfish

— “Just when you thought that it was safe to swim in freshwater lakes and rivers..”

So warns another MonsterQuest episode, but I, for one, do not live in fear of monster catfish…they just don’t have, for me, the shock and awe factor.  It’s not that really big catfish don’t exist…a nine-footer was found, for example, in the Mekong Delta.  Catfish which can supposedly swallow small children whole are also said to exist in the Amazon River, where natives claim to routinely catch 50 pound catfish, with others said to be much bigger, say to around 600 pounds…that ought to feed a lot of people at Cracker Barrel or other places where catfish are served!

The episode also introduced us to “fish noodlers,” who catch catfish with their bare hands; you grab ’em by the lower lip, and it’s said to be like grabbing a wet noodle!  Remind me never to apply for such work…

Other big fish exist, like pikes, one of which is thought to have attacked a man in a lake in Minnesota.  Lake trout continue to grow throughout their life , and one of these was thought to have been as large as a 14-foot boat in a 1987 Arctic circle encounter.    Then there are alligator gar, which can weigh in at over 350 pounds.  An early 1900’s story exists of one of these slaying an alligator, and a 7-1/2 foot specimen was caught in 1910,

While no monster freshwater fish were caught by MonsterQuest on video, they are thought to be out there, but hard to find…haven’t we heard that somewhere before?

Comments: 2 Comments

New Species in New Guinea

Posted September 7, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animals, cool things, environmental, rare animal, science
Tags: ,

extinct vulcano— It’s getting increasingly hard to find anywhere in the world where the foot of man has not trod, and erected a Starbucks…but even in today’s world, explorers are still able to find a few undiscovered places and new species along with it!

One such place is Papua, New Guinea where scientists in a remote mountainous region (pictured) have discovered more than 50 new animal species that include spiders, tree frogs, and a striped gecko that appear to have never been described in scientific literature before.  One of the spiders is shiny and pale green, and there’s a bug-eyed bright green tree frog.  Frogs are often regarded as a great bioindicator of environmental health, with declines in frogs pointing to an affected or changing environment.

My favorite discovery, however, was described as being a giant but friendly vegetarian rat, who may turn out to be the largest in the world.   A tree-dwelling marsupial was found that looks like a bear, and also discovered  was a frog with fangs (should be perfect for the upcoming Halloween)!    kanga_new_guinea

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Cougars in Seattle!

Posted September 5, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal occurrences, animals, environmental, furry, unexplained
Tags: ,

mercury cougar— No, not the Mercury Cougar…we’re talkin’ cougars as in mountain lions, pumas, panthers, and catamounts.  The big cats more commonly attack pets and livestock than people, but a 5-year-old boy was mauled in the Northeast corner of Washington state last Wednesday, and in the past year other attacks have been reported in a few Western states, including Washington and Wyoming. In June of 2008, a cougar killed a 55-year-old man in New Mexico.

Associated Press reports that Seattle’s largest park, Discovery Park, is currently off limits as state wildlife agents try to trap a cougar in or near Discovery Park.  The last time that a cougar was seen in Discovery Park was 1981.  It was dubbed “D.B. Cougar” after the elusive hijacker, D.B. Cooper!

This past Friday morning, a man in that area said that he saw a cougar (no, not the Mercury!) in his driveway as he went to pick up his newspaper. So we’ve got foxes in Detroit, leopards in upstate New York, and cougars in Seattle…It’s a start, right?cougar

Comments: 4 Comments

Mega Jaws, “The Black Demon…”

Posted September 4, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animals, extinct species, rare animal, television
Tags: ,

megalodon— Hmm…you go looking for a megalodon, and find…a whale shark!  Somehow, the thrill is gone…

MonsterQuest went in search of a surviving megalodon shark in the Sea of Cortez in a recent offering, seeking also to better date a megalodon tooth specimen found by the HMS Challenger and estimated in 1959 to be about 10,000 years old.–Surprise!  The tooth was judged not to be datable by modern scientific methods…bummer!

Now since sharks lack bones, most of what we know about extinct species comes from their teeth, with paleontologists estimating ten feet of shark for every inch of tooth.  By such calculation, megalodon measured up to 50 feet long, weighed up to 50 tons, and was two to three times larger than today’s great white shark.  This bad boy lived during the Miocene and Pliocene Eras, 25 to 5 million years ago.–What did they eat?–anything they wanted to, but probably seals at the small end of the scale to giant squid, other sharks, and whales…truly an apex predator!

MonsterQuest felt that most of the sightings is the area were misidentifications of whale sharks, who are just filter feeders.  Some feel that MonsterQuest would have had better luck locating a megalodon in the Marianas Trench area…


Comments: 6 Comments

Chupacabra Redux!

Posted September 3, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal oddities, animals, anomalies, cool things, cryptozoology, furry, rare animal, unexplained, unidentified
Tags: ,

Chupacabra Redux — What’s black, wrinkly, Texan, and bald all over?–Chupacabra, according to some!  A Texas taxidermist near Rosenberg has had the creature in his possession for a couple of months, finding it dead in a barn and keeping it in a freezer until last weekend (remind me not to eat there)!  The creature was likely poisoned by bait placed in the barn to catch an unidentified animal.

Found near Blanco, Texas, the creature weighs about 35 pounds, and has somewhat long fangs, like those of a coyote.  The legs like the teeth are abnormally long.  The face is fox- or coyote-like, and the emaciated body is likely that of a young adult coyote or dog with severe mange, making it hairless.  The face is judged too long and pointy to be a dog, although some dogs are fox-like in their appearance.  Most likely, it’s a freak of nature (like some of my best friends).

Plans are to preserve the animal and then donate it to a local museum, “so it can be enjoyed by others.”–What could be more appropriate?!


Comments: 4 Comments

Oldest Dog Dies…

Posted August 31, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal oddities, animals, furry
Tags:

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— Every dog has his day,/That is what the people say…dang, I’m stuck in rhyme, Aieeee!

…and for Chanel, Guinness World Record holder for oldest living dog, that day is over.  The 21-year-old wirehaired dachshund died August 28th.  She resided in New York, and had been rescued from an animal shelter in Virginia when just a young pup.

Chanel was 147 in dog years, and wore sunglasses for cataracts but otherwise was in good health.  –RIP, mon ami!

Comments: 3 Comments

Will “Avatar” Rock You?

Posted August 30, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, cool things, furries, movies
Tags: , ,

Cameron's Avatar— It’s been called, rather unkindly and dismissively, “a movie for furries.”  I don’t think that James Cameron’s Avatar is going to be that, but there may be furry elements in it, specifically ten-foot blue humanoids called Na’vi who are striped like tigers.

Avatar is, first and foremost, a sci-fi movie written by James Cameron, the visionary behind such cinematic gems as Terminator and Aliens. I like his stuff; if you don’t like sci-fi, there’s always Cameron’s Titanic. Even if you don’t like the subject matter, Avatar promises to be the most ambitious 3D movie experience to date.  Cameron supposedly conceptualized the movie 15 years ago but basically had to wait until technology could match his vision.  Avatar is described as a movie revolution that will push technical effects to the limits while delivering  kick-ass action and a solid  storyline.-—And BTW, the incomparable Sigourney Weaver will appear in Avatar.–Alright, I’m sold!

The story of Avatar follows a future battle between Earth and an alien moon called “Pandora,” a terrifyingly beautiful world full of rich minerals and strange creatures.  “Avatars” as in the movie’s title are human-Na’vi hybrids controlled by human drivers who project their consciousness into the Avatar bodies, since ordinary humans find the environment on Pandora toxic.

—Would I be my avatar?–Yes, in a heartbeat…and Avatar opens in December 2009… advance trailers may be seen…watch for 3D televisions to be introduced in the not-too-distant future, BTW…now I want my flying car!




Comments: 5 Comments

Somewhere in Dreamland…

Posted August 28, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, cryptozoology, furry, rare animal
Tags: ,

bigfoot— I had an unusually vivid dream last night about Bigfoot…In my dream, I went to the Post Office, and they had a juvenile female Bigfoot there in a back room, acting like it was nothing new and really no big deal to them; the postal workers went about sorting their mail.  The Bigfoot was not being held captive, but could apparently come and go as she wished to; she was about the size of a human teenager, and was completely covered with reddish-brown hair.  The Bigfoot was using a wheeled canvas mail carrier as sort of an impromptu chair.

I didn’t discern any menace from the Bigfoot; she was actually rather endearing, and seemed to be appealing to the postal workers for hugs at times, wanting physical touch; in spite of this, she conveyed obvious physical strength.   Most startling was the fact that the Bigfoot appeared to have limited use of language, coming out with simple single-word utterances that were usually outreach-type comments to the workers, or appeals for things that she wanted.  After a few seconds, I was hustled out of the room.

I was of course astonished, and asked the postal workers if they had reported the find.  They said that they had not, and that no good would come out of doing so.  I was admonished not to tell anyone of what I had seen, but told the workers that this was far too important a discovery to be kept secret.  Bursting from the Post Office, I was racing to alert authorities when, of course, I woke up…

…my heart was almost pounding out of my chest at that point, and it took me quite some time to calm myself.  I have since pondered the significance of this dream, wondering if it was a symbolic representation of my own wishes and desires, or whether:

A.)  The government knows more than it’s telling, or…

B.)  A major discovery on Bigfoot or another major cryptid is about to be made…

C.)  Bigfoot is messing with my mail, causing many of my magazines to arrive mutilated?

…In either case, I wish I could follow up on this dream!

Comments: 2 Comments

“The Real Moby Dick”

Posted August 27, 2009 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal occurrences, animals, strange happenings, television
Tags: ,

sperm whale— Sperm whales are pretty awesome; equipped with a massive “battering ram” type head, they can dive to 10,000 feet and remain submerged for over an hour!  They also grow for 50 of their 80 year life cycle, and so must eat constantly. Oil contained in two chambers of their head was once burned, fueling the New England economy of an earlier day; one sperm whale could provide 100 barrels of oil.

When whales were hunted by wooden ships, the tables occasionally got turned, and the whales got to take a few whalers and their vessels with them. One such ship, the Essex, was sunk by a whale in 1820, the incident providing the inspiration for Herman Melville’s classic, Moby Dick. The 20 crewmen of the Essex endured for 3 months in open whale boats following the sinking of their ship, and only 8 crewmen ultimately survived.  Now Melville used a natural history book of the day for factual information on sperm whales, then exaggerated their aggressive qualities.  His legendary white whale was almost an embodiment of evil, but hey, I wouldn’t like being harpooned, either!

So the MonsterQuest team went searching for aggressive albino whales in the Atlantic off Portugal in a recent offering, and initially spotted dolphins, fish, and turtles; one diver even suffered a nasty facial sting from a Portuguese Man o’ War.  When whales were actually spotted, they tended to dive before the team got into position; can you blame them?  Eventually, pilot whales were inspected up close by team divers.

While sperm whales were not sighted muchless any white ones, the episode was nonetheless interesting for the lore on whales and whaling, which thankfully is no longer widely practiced.  Most intriguing was the fact that Melville apparently changed his ending to Moby Dick, originally planning to have both the whale and the ship perish in the finale.  In his published version, the whale takes out the Pequod and survives, heading out to parts unknown of the sea, a malevolent force of nature unconquered by man…

…now that’s what I call a happy ending!—You rule, Moby!–Woo-hoo!

Comments: 3 Comments

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