Unexpected twists and werewolves

Life it seems is constantly throwing unexpected twists at me recently. Sort of annoying because they were not totally unexpected, but I couldn't really do much about them. First off I was demoted at work, while kind of negative thing in the career world, it's sort of a relief because I'm not as stressed now, plus my pay won't be cut to bad. Most annoying however is that my power supply on my desktop decided to kick the bucket, so I'm writing this from my wife's laptop which I have issues with (likes to trick me with it's keyboard). Worst part is that do to a freak accident with gamma radiation, I turn into frothing werewolf when it pisses me off...

Ok...so I'm not really some Incredible Hulk werewolf, but between seeing Twilight New Moon with my wife recently and also Monsterquest's most recent episode (about werewolves as well), I've formulated an idea about paranormal creatures. It's sort of a play on the idea of thoughtforms (physical manifestations of thoughts), or Tulpas (for those more familiar with that term).

This isn't really an original idea, but the theory that Fortean objects or phenomenon, be it animals or UFOs are physical manifestations of thought is actually quite common (heck some believe the world/universe is basically a gigantic thoughtform). However I found myself wondering how many paranormal creatures exist because of a community belief in them, not just from an individual's. Basically the communities themselves believe these to be real, so they become real.

Sadly this post is almost a repeat of one I wrote around year or more ago about gods existing because of belief. Actually it somewhat makes sense. Both the Bible and Koran make it a point to try and make one's beliefs in other gods (besides Allah/Jehovah) falter or be flat out eliminated. It's almost as if the writers of those ancient texts knew that the existence of these gods depended on the amount of belief in them, sort of like in Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods in a way.

Anyways expect more on this idea the near future. Also if things fall into place expect to hear about a crazy plan of mine soon as well...something involving a road trip and of course...strangeness...

Thought: What if they did find something?

Television today is full of shows themed around the unexplained. Ghost Hunters, Destination Truth, UFO Hunters, Mysteryquest, and Monsterquest and countless other series and specials. With all these shows out there though, one is bound to eventually come across what they are searching for, but that would then leave one big question: what would they do if they did find something?

Ghost shows probably wouldn't have to do much, most people will probably pass off any ghosts as tricks or CGI, except for the people who were actually there. What about physical things like crashed UFOs or a cryptid though? Most teams on TV from what I can tell aren't equipped to capture animals or bring back large pieces debris. There is also an inherent element of risk, especially with potentially dangerous cryptids like some of the ones Destination Truth goes after. All it takes is getting to close to a angry Sasquatch, and BAM! lights out for a crewman and most likely goodbye show.

Assuming that a team somehow does get the evidence of a lifetime, I'm pretty sure the producers of the show would have no problem handling the media bandwagon that would follow. After all, that is their primary job to begin with. The best part is that it probably wouldn't turn out like the Bigfoot costume in a freezer guys.

Mysterious Feline in Lincoln City

This wasn't originally what I was going to post today, but I figured I'd share it before the memory fades to the back of my mind again. It's also one of those experiences that unfortunately did not happen to me, so I can't substantiate much more then assuming that my family was telling me the truth.

About ten years ago we were staying at my grandparent's condo in Neskowin, OR, when my mom and my brother decided to take a trip into Lincoln City, just south of Neskowin on Interstate 101. Upon reaching the city, they took a short cut along NE E Devils Lake Rd, which goes along Devil's Lake obviously. Being a coastal community, this section of Lincoln City is only contains scattered houses and wilderness, the main part of the city being located almost mainly along Interstate 101.

Somewhere along their way to the factory outlet stores that lie on the other end of NE E Devils Lake Rd, my mom and brother saw what they took to be a mountain lion. There was one odd thing about it however. They described as being very dark, which may have been partly due to the amount of shade from the trees that hang over the road, but they insisted it was very dark and not just the shade.

From their description the only things I could figure was that it was either a large black dog that they thought was a large feline, or perhaps it was a mountain lion in in the shade. However, there are two other possibilities, which although unlikely may perhaps have been the case.

The first is that it was a melanistic (black) mountain lion. Interestingly, melanistic mountain lions, from what I understand, have yet to be confirmed as being real. That doesn't mean they don't exist, just that they have yet to find one to confirm they do. Unlike the mountain lion however, both jaguars and leopards have confirmed melanistic variants. That of course opens up the possibility that someone in the area happened to have a black leopard or jaguar for a pet (Last I checked, those guys aren't native to Oregon.) that managed to get loose.

Like I said however, I did not witness it, and for all I know, it may have nothing more then a average mountain lion or perhaps someone's black lab that got away. If it was indeed a lab or other type of dog, well my family needs to learn their animals.

The Tyrant Lizard King of the Dinosaurs Lives?

Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) , the Tyrant Lizard King has long been thought of as the most terrifying dinosaur to ever roam the planet. Bipedal, 13ft tall (at the hips), 42ft in length, possessing a mouth full of teeth as long as 12 inches, and built like a classic theropod, it's no wonder his discoverers thought him a king.

T. rex Skull

T. rex's reputation has wavered little even with the discovery of fellow theropods larger then the King, such as Giganotosaurus and Spinosaurus, although the latter's size is still up for debate. Even with larger rivals old Rexy is still regarded as the King of the dinosaurs amongst many, and it's a reputation well played out in movies such as Jurassic Park.

Oddly despite being seemingly designed for to be a dinosaur hunting machine, some paleontologists believe T. rex may have been nothing more then a scavenger, much like todays vultures, only on the ground with big...really big...um...teeth...Ok let's admit it, there is no way he was just strictly a scavenger. Odds are that like most predatory animals T. rex was an opportunistic hunter. That means that pretty much he would hunt for food, but if he found a fresh corpse or a weaker predators kill (even fellow Rexes probably) he wouldn't pass up the opportunity for an easy meal.

Now Tyrannosaurus had other family members running around the world before and during his reign. These family members have been given the convenient name of Tyrannosauridae and they ranged over both North America and Asia. However in the last century an interesting report came out of Africa. It seems that in 1932 a man named John Johnson had a strange encounter in the Kasai Valley of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo while hunting.

Mr. Johnson claimed that as he was about to shoot a rhinoceros when a 42ft long reptile burst out of the trees and killed John Johnson's would be trophy. His servant ran for his life while Mr. Johnson promptly fainted (If you believe that T. rex's vision is based on movement like in Jurassic Park, it might work. However that bit of the movie was fictional...sorry to disappoint) only to come to later and see the creature chowing down on the rhino. John described the beast as looking like a Tyrannosaurus, as you probably already knew by now, which has since been labeled Kasai rex.

The problem however is this; Tyrannosaurs (or Tyrannosauridae) did not roam Africa, or at least there is no fossil evidence that they did. Adding to this is the fact that there is absolutely no evidence of the creatures existence other then this account and a newspaper article describing a virtually similar incident without a name for the witness. There are also apparently two photos of said beast floating around out there, however one shows nothing more then a picture of a monitor lizard pasted onto a jungle scene and the other that supposedly shows a T. rex eating a rhino doesn't seem to exist other then in a fake and copyrighted form.

The one in the second photo looks much like this one from an old movie.
It's posture is incorrect though. In fact T. rex stood much like the one in Jurassic Park.

If you don't want to dismiss Kasai rex as nothing more then some hunters telling tall tales, you can assume that perhaps it was indeed an African dwelling theropod not related to Tyrannosaurus, such as Cacharodontosaurus who was native at least to North Africa, and as large, if not larger then the King. Like all rumored surviving dinosaurs (excluding birds of course) it is doubtful that it exists at all, but as many like to say Africa would be one of the best places for one to survive if one did.

Sources and Further Reading:
Kasai Rex - Wikipedia
Kasai Rex - Some geocities site about why it's a hoax
Kasai Rex - True Authority (seems them creationists try and tote it around as evidence that they are right.)
Tyrannosaurus - Wikipedia

The Megalodon!

Here is one for my prehistory loving fans.

Carcharodon Megalodon, was the largest shark ever to exist. In fact the Megalodon probably could have swallowed a great white shark, plus some, whole, that's how large it was. While the overall size of this bad boy is still highly debated, it's estimated that it was at least 43ft long, or possibly even 60ft. One person, who mistakenly placed the wrong teeth into some spots on a jaw reconstruction, estimated 80ft, however, as I said he made a mistake. Turns out the shark was 150ft, and he wasn't to happy about the 80ft estimate, so he promptly traveled forward in time to eat the guy who made the mistake...ok...now I'm just totally making stuff up. Like I said, the real estimate lies between about 43ft to 60ft, depending on who you go with.

Now like all big groovy critters that once existed on this planet, the Megalodon went extinct, or at least it supposedly did some 1.5 million years ago. Now that's a long time, but considering that the Coelocanth supposedly died out some 65 million years ago, only to be discovered lounging along the coast of South Africa in 1938 while he was on vacation. Needless to say, a species that was supposed to be dead around 65 million years ago surviving into today is quite remarkable. Now look at the 1.5 million year estimate for the Megalodon and compare that to 65 million. That's about 63.5 million years difference, so I say the odds of Megalodon still existing today are actually quite good, or at least compared to say a dinosaur living today.

Let's see now, where would we find a Megalodon...oh perhaps Australia. Great waves, groovy accents, and the most venomous creatures in the world; yeah I'd be chilling there if I was a prehistoric shark. While there I'd also make sure to be spotted by the odd fisherman or two just to strike some fear into them. Oh heck, how about a bunch of fisherman like that incident in 1918 at Broughton Island. There a bunch of fishermen refused to go to sea for several days all because they saw a gigantic white colored shark. Now some of them were rather prone to exaggeration, so initial estimates of the length were 300ft, however some people not as prone to exaggeration gave the more reasonable length of 115ft or so. Maybe the 80ft estimate guy was correct...or it's a completely different monster shark. Either way, fishermen are used to seeing large sea creatures, so odds are whatever they saw was something big they've not seen before.

Now the story of a bunch of scared stiff fishermen probably isn't the best evidence out there, but well...um...it's some of the best evidence supporting the Megalodon's possible survival. If you wanted to look at it in more scientific terms you could go with the fact that the larger a predator is, the less of them there are. Also we know that large creatures like the Giant Squid, Colossal Squid, and Cthulhu, ok maybe not Cthulhu, exist in the ocean's depths and are so rarely seen that we thought they were just legend for a long time. So I guess what I'm saying is...there's a chance...a slim one, but a good one and that is what counts in the end.


Sources and Further Reading:
Megalodon - Wikipedia
Does Megalodon Still Live? - Elasmo-research
Does Carcharodon Megalodon Still Exist?
Could Megalodon Still Exist?

Note: The shark in the picture is a Great White and not a Megalodon...as far as I know, no real Megalodon photos exist, unless someone is hiding one out there...