Discovery News

Year of the Snake

The year of the snake has just come upon us. In celebration, I present some snakes.

pimg-1093546753-208174 This is a Reticulated Python. They’re freakin’ big. At least some of them are. They live in Southeast Asia and are the longest snakes in existence, some growing to be over 28 feet in length! Also: They can eat people if the people aren’t careful.

r8c8auNow we have the Barbados Threadsnake. These guys are freakin’ tiny. All of them. They measure just shy of 4 inches long and were only discovered 4 years go on Barbados. Threadsnakes are pretty damned adorable, IMO.

 

4282956-3x2-940x627Then it’s on to the Inland Taipan. These guys are really freakin’ poisonous. Like, kill everything poisonous. It really shouldn’t be a surprise, though, since the Taipan is from Australia, where I’m pretty sure even the dogs exude deadly substances from their skin.

Inspirations for this article were drawn from: Top 12 Most Amazing Snakes – FEB 8, 2013 12:30 PM ET // BY JENNIFER VIEGAS

News Dump Vol.4

I got distracted by a number of stories that I wanted to talk specifically about, so some interesting stories are getting backlogged. In the interest of getting them to you in some sort of a timely matter, here they are!

Photo News Roundup

You know me. I love rounding up some news for you! This roundup features photos!

Bigfoot Extravaganza

There’s been some Bigfoot news rolling down the pipes of late, so I thought I would put together something about the matter.

The Stories

Kitsu’s Thoughts

Cryptomundo reported the Umatilla howls on January 26th, and this was how I personally came into following the story. The Howls were originally reported by Oregon Live on the 20th. The howls started in November and range “from high-pitched screams to basso profundo roars” according to reporter Richard Cockie from Oregon Live. The sounds being attributed to bigfoot have also been corroborated according to stories by the discovery of a single track in the road (though as far as I can tell, no documentation of the track by way of photos or casting exists).

The recording has been made available online.

(AUDIO)

After giving the file a listen, I can’t help but feel like it is a screaming fox. Despite the statements by Sylvia Minthorn that “Foxes do sound creepy, but it’s not the same sound, not even close.” The screeching even started during fox breeding season.

Then we come to the ABC news coverage of the event…

Good Morning American should not have reported on it unless they could take it seriously. They didn’t even do their research, claiming shriek and roar recordings are a new thing, when they haven’t been new for some time. ABC shouldn’t have bothered.

So… Foxes in the mating season or Bigfoot? My money’s on Foxes.

Anti-Wifi Movement? Seriously?

Today I’ve read a story from Discovery News by Benjamin Radford from 1 Feb 2013 titled “Anti-Wi-Fi Activism ‘Fear Mongering’.

It turns out that there’s a movement of people who blame Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) give them health problems, which they’ve lumped together and named “Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity” (EHS). EHS can supposedly cause a myriad of symptoms. Symptoms are so varied, in fact, that their isn’t really a “normal” case.

And it also turns out that double blind studies by the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that “symptoms do not seem to be correlated with EMF exposure… these symptoms may be due to pre-existing psychiatric conditions as well as stress reactions as a result of worrying about believed EMF health effects, rather than EMF exposure.”

So basically, stop fear mongering and you might get better!

You can also see a compiled report by Bad Science Watch, if you’re interested.

News Dump Vol.3

Due to some time constraints right now, I’m doing quick Newsdump posts that will help keep things from getting buried in my box. Expect special posts on both Giant Squids and Bigfoot soon.

News Dump Vol.2

I figured I would dump news today because it’s the early in the month, and everything that’s from last month needs to get off my List of things to put in the blog.

News Roundup Vol.3

This roundup has no theme, other than I got the stories on January 31st and wrote about them for today.

Prehistoric News Roundup

Kitsu here once again, enjoying the fact that some interesting Dinosaur news is in the pipeline, and she has enough for a roundup specifically for it!

  • Biggest Dinos Had Tennis Ball-Sized Brains – JAN 24, 2013 08:55 AM ET // BY CHARLES Q. CHOI, OURAMAZINGPLANET
    Specially they’re talking about Ampelosaurus, a discovery from 2007, formerly called Titanosaur. Monstrous body. Tiny, tiny brain. Science has verified this and it’s a consistent link amongst the Sauropod dinosaurs.
  • Small, Meat-Eating Dino Count Suddenly Triples – JAN 24, 2013 12:43 PM ET // BY JENNIFER VIEGAS
    People looked at some teeth, which I don’t understand why this hadn’t already been done, and now the 7 species on record is replaced by a scientifically verified 16. This takes the total to 23. Way to go science! Don’t drop the ball for so long next time!
  • Tiny Feathered Dinosaur Found – JAN 28, 2013 11:20 AM ET // BY LIVESCIENCE
    Archaeopteryx has been gaining more and more company in the “feathered dinosaur” world for a long time, and this new discovery suggests that even Archaeopteryx’s name (meaning “First bird”) should be doubted. New discoveries from china show that feathers have been around, along with the avian body indicators, for a very long time.

Scary News Roundup

I love doing news Roundups. They’re so much fun! And this one has a Scary theme!