Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Top 10 Bizarre Cryptids

Source

by jewditzsue

A cryptid is a creature who may be thought by some people to exist, but is not recognized by the scientific community. Cryptids appear frequently in folklore and mythology but – as you will see – tales of them appear still to this day. One cryptid that is well-known is Bigfoot. After the giant squid was discovered, I became fascinated (and creeped out) by these bizarre creatures. This list is in no particular order.

10
Nessie / Champ

Nessie

Champ and Nessie are creatures that have similar backgrounds and descriptions. People have reported seeing these creatures in Lake Champlain, USA, and Loch Ness, in Scotland. Reports of Nessie describe the creature as being 20 feet long with dark grey skin. She is reported as having humps and at least one set of paddles. She has a head similar to a horse‘s. Witness reports vary on the description, but not by a lot. The most reported sightings of Nessie occurred in the 1930s and still occur to this day. Champ has been sighted for as long as 400 years. Native American tribes have even older legends of a beast in Lake Champlain. Champ is also described as being about 20 feet long (lengths vary) with a serpentine body. He also is reported as having a horse-like head. Champ has had laws pushed through to protect him. The most interesting thing about Champ and Nessie is that they are thought to be dinosaurs that managed to survive. Descriptions of them are similar to a plesiosaur.

9
Chupacabra

Chupacabra02

Chupacabras have been reported to suck the blood out of livestock, similar to the way a vampire would. The chupacabra has been a very confusing subject for crypto zoologists to research because descriptions vary so much. American “chupacabras” have been usually proven to be a canine breed. Usually, they have mange so bad that they look like another creature entirely. Researchers have found sightings as early as 1974. They have also found that the chupacabra is similar to a creature in legends of the Taino Indians. The Puerto Rican sightings have gathered the most interest. Sightings had been reported from 1995 to 1999. The chupacabra has been reported as having large glowing red or orange eyes, huge fangs, sharp claws, spikes running down it’s back, and as standing on two limbs. In one sighting, the chupacabra changed colors before their eyes. One theory is that they are a scientific experiment gone horribly wrong.

8
Ebu Gogo

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These little guys were sighted in Flores, Indonesia, from ancient times to the 19th century. They’re described as hairy and short with big guts. They walk like humans. They are said to have mimicked the words people said to them. Australians and Indonesians found skeletons of a new species of human at an archaeological site. They were believed to live over ten thousand years ago. The skeletons were about a meter tall. These skeletons were thought to possibly be the ebu gogo of Indonesian folklore. The ebu gogo have been used by Indonesians as a scare tactic to get their children to behave. The term “ebu gogo” means grandmother who eats anything. Legend has it that the ebu gogo and the people lived in peace… for a while. The ebu gogo started killing crops and the humans’ animals. They fled to caves when the humans started killing them. These caves were eventually set on fire after the ebu gogo stole a baby. Some were said to have fled to the Liang Bua caves, which is the cave where the archaeologists found the small skeletons.

7
Springheel Jack

Springheeled-Jack-1

Springheel Jack has been reported in London, New Mexico, Massachusetts, and Argentina, from 1837 to our time. Springheel Jack is thought to be a tall and thin man, who wears a tightly fitted hat and a black cape. He has large claws and sometimes his eyes are described as glowing a bright red. In 1837, a man, thought to be a police officer knocked on a woman’s door, claiming to have caught Springheel Jack. She came back with a candle and the man had disappeared. She went outside to find a man by her gate. After giving the man the candle, who happened to be Springheel Jack, he attacked her. He spit white and blue flames out of his mouth and tore at her dress and face with his claws. He fled after the woman’s sister came out after hearing her screams. In 1877, people reported their bullets shooting through him, while he remained unharmed. In the 1930s, he was reported being in Silver City, New Mexico, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The reports remained the same. In 2005, he has been reported as jumping from one roof to the next, up to five meters high and ten meters long. Some people link him to Jack the Ripper.

6
Shadow People

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Shadow people are reported worldwide and since the beginning of recorded history. Shadow people seem to be living shadows. They are usually seen out of the corner of peoples eyes. Some people see semi-transparent dark splotches. They vanish as soon as a person realizes what they saw. When people see shadow people a feeling of despair and fear overcome them. There have been some reports of being attacked or chased by these shadows. The shadows are usually larger than a normal shadow and doesn’t resemble the person’s silhouette. I have personally came across a shadow like this and a dreadful feeling came over me for a brief moment. It was abnormally large and moved, when I did not.

5
Beast of Bray Road

Beastkneeling

This beast was sighted in Wisconsin, USA. It has been sighted since 1936. It runs on all four limbs, or its hind limbs. It is said to be about six feet tall, built like an athletic man and covered in shaggy hair. He has a wolf-like face with yellow eyes, that glow in the light. A woman said it was the closest creature to resemble a werewolf that she had ever seen. He has a horrible odor of decaying meat. In 1936, this beast was seen digging in an Indian burial site. The watchman prayed for his life upon seeing him. The beast reportedly said “gadarah” to him and walked away on his two hind legs. Gadara was a Greek city, located east of the Jordan River. It is mentioned in the New Testament. According to the Bible, Jesus met a man who was thought to have been possessed by evil spirits. This man was so strong that he could break through chains. When the man saw Jesus, he worshiped him. He told Jesus his name was Legion, and that there were many like him. Jesus cured him of the evil spirits, by transferring them to a herd of pigs. The pigs then ran into the sea and died. The theory is that the beast of Bray Road was trying to tell the man about his kind and that his kind has been around since biblical times.

4
Mothman

Mothman

This creature has been sighted in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, USA. Sightings have been reported since 1966. The moth man is a gray and winged creature with large glowing red eyes located in what would normally be the creature’s upper chest. It is about six feet tall and wider than a man. The first report was made by five males who were at work in a cemetery. As they were preparing a burial site, they had seen a creature that appeared to be man-like fly over them. In another report, a group of people were chased while they were in their vehicle going at least 100 mph by a similar creature. The mothman had managed to keep up with them for a while, before flying away. They claimed the mothman did not flap his wings while flying. Some people even reported their car completely dying, momentarily, when they have sighted the creature. The mothman has also been linked to UFO sightings and seemingly legitimate claims of “men in black” visits at a newspaper office.

3
Atmospheric Beasts

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Atmospheric beasts are reported to have semi-solid bodies and are often invisible. They can fly, but have no visible wings. Sometimes atmospheric beasts are reported as UFOs. Ivan T. Sanderson claims that most UFOs are actually atmospheric beasts. He theorizes that atmospheric beasts are animals that live in the clouds. Sometimes the atmospheric beast is reported to change shape, color, and texture. People who believe in atmospheric beasts think that the creature will die if they ever touch the ground. Some people even report them spitting streams of water at them. Others report that the beasts smell like mildew and feel like a giant soft tongue. They also seem to resemble animals of the sea, rather than land animals.

2
Maryland Goatman

Goatman

The Maryland goatman has been seen in Prince Georges County, Maryland, USA, since the 1970s. It is reported as having the lower body of a goat and the upper body of a man. He also has the horns of a goat. He’s about 7 feet tall and 300 pounds. The goatman was first sighted by a couple of lovers who had been making out in their car. The goatman had an ax in his hand, while staring at the couple. He then ran into the woods. A woman reported that she had seen the creature in her backyard while her dog was barking urgently. She was too scared to go outside and found that her dog had had it’s head chopped off, when she went outside the next morning.

1
Pongo

White-Pongo

There are legends of this creature in Africa. He is said to have looked like a mix of a man and a monkey. Legend had it that the creature had magical powers and enjoyed the taste of human flesh. Female pongos turned into gorgeous women in order to get close enough to a man to eat him. Pongos and humans could reproduce hybrid kids who looked like normal humans, but had cannibalistic tendencies. In 1847, the pongo was amazingly discovered to exist. However, it is now called a gorilla and known to be a vegetarian. Okay, I admit this animal is obviously no longer a cryptid. However, it shows that reports of cryptids may sometimes be over-exaggerated, and if some are found to exist they may actually turn out to be pretty damn ordinary.

10 More Terrifying and Mysterious Creatures

by Stephen King

Here are ten of the most terrifying and bizarre creatures to ever, allegedly, walk the Earth. These creatures defy logic, inspire the imagination and generate fear. They are the subject of numerous movies, documentaries, books and even songs. They have become ingrained in our culture. Do these creatures really exist? Did they ever exist? Or are these merely hoaxes, or the result of over active imaginations? No matter what you believe, I think it is safe to say that the members of this list are the stuff of nightmares, and if encountered, even the most hardened individual would tremble with fear. So let’s open our minds to the incredible, and embark on a brief journey through a world teeming with cryptids. This is a follow up list to theTop 10 Bizarre Cryptids.

10
Dover Demon

Screen Shot 2010-11-17 At 4.31.04 Pm

This creature was sighted on three separate occasions in the town of Dover, Massachusetts, on April 21 and April 22, 1977. Due to its appearance, there’s speculation as to whether or not this creature was an alien, or the result of some sort of experiment i.e. a human or alien hybrid, while others suggest it came from another dimension. The Dover Demon’s features are as follows – a disproportionately large, watermelon shaped head, glowing orange eyes, long, thin arms and legs with slender fingers. It was said to be hairless, with rough, flesh-toned skin described as a tan color with the texture of sandpaper. The Dover Demon reportedly lacked facial features e.g. it had no nose, ears or mouth. It’s height was 3 feet, and it made a bloodcurdling noise that sounded like a hawk’s screech combined with a snake’s hiss.

9
Jersey Devil

Jersey

This beast is said to inhabit the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey, with tales beginning in the 1800s and continuing until the 20th century. The creature is usually described as a flying biped with hooves, wings like a bat and a head resembling a horse. The legend of this creature stems from a tale about “Mother Leeds’, a local witch who invoked the devil while giving birth to her 13th child. When the baby was born it immediately transformed into a demonic creature and flew off into the surrounding pine barrens. The Jersey Devil was blamed for many livestock killings, strange tracks and bizarre sounds. In the early 1900′s, scores of people in New Jersey and neighboring states claimed to witness the Jersey Devil or see evidence of it’s arrival through strange tracks.

8
Flatwoods Monster

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It is claimed that the Flatwoods Monster is some form of extraterrestrial, as this creature was spotted in the vicinity of a large UFO that either hovered above or rested on the ground in the town of Flatwoods, in Braxton County, West Virginia, on September 12, 1952. According to the reports, this creature was huge, at least 10 feet tall. its face gave off a reddish glow, and its body was green in colour. Its head was shaped like a heart or Ace of Spades, and out of this strangely shaped head bulged non-human eyes. The body is described as being shaped similar to a mans and dressed in some sort of dark clothing resembling a skirt. Reports ranged from the creature having no visible arms to short, stubby arms ending in long claw-like fingers.

7
Owlman

Owlman3 Ft17 17

Mawnan, Cornwall, around the middle of 1976, is where you’d find the earliest Owlman reports. The first sighting took place on April 17, 1976, where the creature was spotted hovering above the Mawnan church tower. Oddly enough sightings up to August, 1978, all occurred within the vicinity of this church. Reports of the Owlman ceased altogether sometime in 1995. This cryptid looks like an owl (no surprise there, considering it is name), it is the size of a man, it has pointed ears, red eyes and black pincer-like claws. Its body bears some similarities to the more famous Mothman, in that it is described as having large wings and is a grayish color. Interestingly, there were many UFO reports, as well as accounts of animals behaving strangely in the surrounding area just prior to the Owlman sightings. Another similarity to the Mothman case.

6
Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp

Lizard-Man

On a list like this the Lizard Man had to be high. This humanoid cryptid is said to inhabit the swampland areas in and around Lee County, South Carolina. The sightings began on June 29, 1988, with the most recent notable sighting in February, 2008. The creature is described as being 7 feet 2 inches tall, bipedal, has a strong build, green scaly skin and glowing red eyes. Reports state that the Lizard Man has three toes on each foot and three fingers on each hand. These fingers end in a circular pad that apparently enables the creature to stick to walls. As evidenced by the damage done to the vehicles of those unfortunate enough to encounter it, the creature also possesses incredible strength, clearly capable of ripping into a car. Pulling over in this area is a bad idea.

5
Bunyip

Screen Shot 2010-11-17 At 4.26.18 Pm

For those who grew up in Australasia (primarily Australia and NZ), the bunyip will be familiar. The bunyip is a large mythical creature from Australian Aboriginal mythology, said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds and waterholes. It has been described as a giant starfish that walks on land. Other common descriptions from 19th century newspaper accounts include a dog-like face, dark fur, a horse-like tail, flippers and walrus-like tusks or horns or a duck like bill. The very first use of the word to describe this Australian cryptid appeared in a newspaper in 1845:

“The Bunyip, then, is represented as uniting the characteristics of a bird and of an alligator. It has a head resembling an emu, with a long bill, at the extremity of which is a transverse projection on each side, with serrated edges like the bone of the stingray. Its body and legs partake of the nature of the alligator. The hind legs are remarkably thick and strong, and the fore legs are much longer, but still of great strength. The extremities are furnished with long claws, but the blacks say its usual method of killing its prey is by hugging it to death. When in the water it swims like a frog, and when on shore it walks on its hind legs with its head erect, in which position it measures twelve or thirteen feet in height.”

4
Sigbin

Sigbin

The Sigbin is a creature from the Philippines said to come out at night to suck the blood of victims from their shadows (the Philippines has some amazingly bizarre cryptids as you can see on this list). It is said to walk backwards with its head lowered between its hind legs, and to have the ability to become invisible to other creatures, especially humans. It resembles a hornless goat, but has very large ears which it can clap like a pair of hands and a long, flexible tail that can be used as a whip. The Sigbin is said to emit a nauseating odor. Depending on region and storyteller, the sigbin resembles either a hornless goat, a reptilian crow or something vaguely along the lines of the Chupacabra. What is most common with all accounts is that its head hangs between its forelegs which are much shorter than its hindlegs. Whether because of physiology or because it makes the sigbin seem scarier, it is also known to crabwalk backwards. The sigbin also has a long whip-like tail that emit’s a foul stench and two grasshopper-like legs on its neck that enable it to jump far distances. They wander around at night in search of children to devour but they keep the hearts to make amulets. Most stories and sightings originate from the Cebu region. However, although it is some distance away, in 2005 scientists in Borneo discovered a “cat-fox-like carnivore” with hind legs longer than forelegs giving it an awkward gait and physical appearance that somewhat fits many of the descriptions of the sigbin (e.g. long tail, short forearms, can jump far distances, carnivorous). No conclusive evidence has been found yet to link the two together.

3
Canvey Island Monster

4-Canvey

The Canvey Island Monster is the name given to an unusual creature whose carcass washed up on the shores of Canvey Island, England, in November, 1954. A second, more intact, carcass was discovered in August, 1955. The 1954 specimen was described as being 76cm (2.4ft) long with thick reddish brown skin, bulging eyes and gills. It was also described as having hind legs with five-toed horseshoe-shaped feet with concave arches – which appeared to be suited for bipedal locomotion – but no forelimbs. Its remains were cremated after a cursory inspection by zoologists who said that it posed no danger to the public. The 1955 specimen was described as being similar to the first but much larger, being 120cm (3.9 ft) long and weighing approximately 11.3kg (25lb). It was sufficiently fresh for its eyes, nostrils and teeth to be studied, though no official explanation was given at the time as to what it was or what happened to the carcass.

2
Pope Lick Monster

Sheepman

In most accounts, the Pope Lick Monster (named after the Pope Lick Creek below the Pope Lick Train Trestle – shown above) appears as a human-goat hybrid with a grotesquely deformed body of a man. It has powerful, fur-covered goat legs, an alabaster-skinned face with an aquiline nose and wide set eyes. Short, sharp horns protrude from the forehead, nestled in long greasy hair that matched the color of the fur on the legs. Numerous urban legends exist about the creature’s origins and the methods it employs to claim its victims. According to some accounts, the creature uses either hypnosis or voice mimicry to lure trespassers onto the trestle to meet their death before an oncoming train. Other stories claim the monster jumps down from the trestle onto the roofs of cars passing beneath it. Yet other legends tell that it attacks its victims with a blood-stained axe.

1
Goatman

Goat-Man28

Described as a hybrid beast that bears a horrific mélange of both human and goat-like characteristics, this horned, hoofed, goat featured horror would seem to be a modern re-interpretation of the ancient satyrs found in Greek myths. Yet eyewitnesses claim that this fiend is not a figment from beyond mythology, but a living, breathing, flesh and blood creature, that is not to be trifled with. The first official report of this brute hails from 1957, when eyewitnesses reported seeing a hairy, horned monster in the areas of Forestville and Upper Marlboro in Prince George’s County. Following that wave of sightings, the beast apparently decided to lay low until the summer of 1962, when the Goatman was accused of killing no less than fourteen people — twelve children and two accompanying adults — who were apparently hiking too close to its lair. The survivors, who, of course, remain unidentified, claimed that the Goatman violently hacked it’s victims to pieces with an axe, all the while emitting ghastly sounds only the “devil himself” would make. [Source]

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Thursday, December 23, 2010

scientistslabbacteria afp Hong Kong researchers store data in bacteria

Hong Kong researchers store data in bacteria

By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, January 9th, 2011 -- 11:11 am


Source

A group of students at Hong Kong's Chinese University are making strides towards storing such vast amounts of information in an unexpected home: the E.coli bacterium better known as a potential source of serious food poisoning.

"This means you will be able to keep large datasets for the long term in a box of bacteria in the refrigerator," said Aldrin Yim, a student instructor on the university's biostorage project, a 2010 gold medallist in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)'s prestigious iGEM competition.

Biostorage -- the art of storing and encrypting information in living organisms -- is a young field, having existed for about a decade.

In 2007, a team at Japan's Keio University said they had successfully encoded the equation that represents Einstein's theory of relativity, E=MC2, in the DNA of a common soil bacterium.

They pointed out that because bacteria constantly reproduce, a group of the single-celled organisms could store a piece of information for thousands of years.

But the Hong Kong researchers have leapt beyond this early step, developing methods to store more complex data and starting to overcome practical problems which have lent weight to sceptics who see the method as science fiction.

The group has developed a method of compressing data, splitting it into chunks and distributing it between different bacterial cells, which helps to overcome limits on storage capacity. They are also able to "map" the DNA so information can be easily located.

This opens up the way to storing not only text, but images, music, and even video within cells.

As a storage method it is extremely compact -- because each cell is minuscule, the group says that one gram of bacteria could store the same amount of information as 450 2,000 gigabyte hard disks.

They have also developed a three-tier security fence to encode the data, which may come as welcome news to US diplomats who have seen their thoughts splashed over the Internet thanks to WikiLeaks.

"Bacteria can't be hacked," points out Allen Yu, another student instructor.

"All kinds of computers are vulnerable to electrical failures or data theft. But bacteria are immune from cyber attacks. You can safeguard the information."

The team have even coined a word for this field -- biocryptography -- and the encoding mechanism contains built-in checks to ensure that mutations in some bacterial cells do not corrupt the data as a whole.

Professor Chan Ting Fung, who supervised the student team, told AFP that practical work in the field -- fostered by MIT, who have helped develop standards enabling researchers to collaborate -- was in its early stages.

But he said: "What the students did was to try it out and make sure some of the fundamental principles are actually achievable."

The Hong Kong group's work may have a more immediate application.

The techniques they use -- removing DNA from bacterial cells, manipulating them using enzymes and returning them to a new cell -- are similar to those used to create genetically modified foods.

But rather than changing the building blocks of an organism, the Hong Kong group allows extra information to piggyback on the DNA of the cell, after checking their changes against a master database to make sure they do not have accidental toxic effects.

Their work could enable extra information to be added to a genetically modified crop in the form of a "bio barcode", Chan said.

"For example, a company that makes a GM tomato that grows extra large with a gene that promotes growth -- on top of that we can actually encode additional information like safety protocols, things that are not directly related to the biological system."

Other types of information, like copyright and design history, could help to monitor the spread of GM crops, he said.

"It's kind of a safety net for synthetic organisms," said Wong Kit Ying, from the student team.

Beyond this, Chan and the students are evangelical about the future possibilities of synthetic biology.

"The field is getting popular because of the energy crisis, environmental pollution, climate change. They are thinking that a biological system will be a future solution to those -- as alternative energy sources, as a remedy for pollution. For these, micro-organisms are the obvious choice," Chan said.

One type of bacterium, Deinococcus radiodurans, can even survive nuclear radiation.

"Bacteria are everywhere: they can survive on things that are unthinkable to humans. So we can make use of this," Chan said.

So is it possible that a home computer could one day consist of a dish filled with micro-organisms?

The group dismisses concerns that this could be dangerous, pointing out that despite E.coli's poor reputation, they use an altered form that cannot exist outside a rich synthetic medium.

In fact, says Chan, while safety rules are strict, more measures are taken to protect the bacteria from contamination than to protect the researchers from the bacteria.

However, Yim admitted that while the group's work is a "foundational advance", a petri dish PC is not likely to be on the market in the coming years, not least because the method of retrieving the data requires experts in a laboratory.

"It's possible," he said, "but there's a long way to go."


Researchers store 90GB of data in 1g of bacteria

Link

Chinese researchers store data in bacteria


Researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong have successfully shown how to store encrypted data in bacteria. A colony of E.coli was used for the experiment, with the equivalent of the United States Declaration of Independence stored in the DNA of eighteen bacterial cells. As 10 million cells are present in one gram of biological material, this would translate to a data storage capacity of 90GB.

Data can also be encrypted thanks to the natural process of site-specific genetic recombination. Information is scrambled by recombinase genes, the actions of which are controlled by a transcription factor.

The method has some flaws, however, as an expensive sequencer is needed to retrieve data, with the process described as tedious as well. What's more, toxic DNA usually found in stored sequences will mutate and remove the toxic sequences, taking some of the data with it.

Only copyright information can be stored in genetically engineered organisms thus far. Bacteria has the potential to be more resilient to keeping data storage than traditional, electronic means. Deinococcus radiodurans bacterium, for example, can withstand electromagnetic pulses and a radiation from a nuclear fallout. [via BluSci]

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