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Pastimes : The Odd The Weird the things we can not understand -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: AugustWest who wrote (271)	8/31/2001 3:54:16 PM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 358

(2001-08-31) MAN CLAIMS TO HAVE DEAD BIGFOOT IN MEAT FREEZER MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (Wireless Flash) -- The mystery of Sasquatch may finally been solved thanks to a South Carolina man who claims he is in possession of a Bigfoot corpse. 30-year-old Simon Garth claims he shot and killed the creature in self-defense last weekend after it pelted him with rocks during a camping trip. He dragged the dead Bigfoot to his pick-up truck and hauled the creature to his brother-in-law's house, where the corpse supposedly is now sitting in a meat freezer. Garth claims the Bigfoot is 6 feet tall, weighs around 285 pounds and smells like "bad eggs." He plans to sell the corpse to the highest bidder and says he hopes the Discovery Channel will be interested because he thinks they'll treat the creature "...with more dignity than ABC or CBS." downtoearth.ncbuy.com

To: AugustWest who wrote (271)	10/1/2001 2:59:40 PM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 358

Soesn't fit exactly but can you imagine what the US would be like with 100K Woolly Mammoth & several thousand Doo-Doo(or forgot we have 50 state capitols & Washington full of politicians) ? BBC News Online: Sci/Tech -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, 8 October, 2000, 17:32 GMT 18:32 UK Endangered species cloned A cow is preparing to give birth to the clone of an endangered wild ox native to Asia. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We do play God when we wreak havoc on the environment Dr Robert Lanza -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- US scientists say that if the pregnancy proceeds normally, it will result in the first threatened animal to be born using cloning technology. The Asian gaur should be delivered by its surrogate mother in November. Some researchers believe cloning may offer the only way to save species from extinction. But conservationists argue there is little point if the reasons for the animals' decline, such as habitat loss, have not been addressed first. Giant panda Researchers at Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) in Massachusetts fused the genetic material from a dead male gaur with the empty egg cell of a cow to make their clone, which they have already called Noah. A total of 692 eggs were used in the experiment. Thirty-two embryo clones were initially implanted in surrogate mothers, but only eight of the adult cows became pregnant. Of those, five miscarried, and two other foetuses were aborted for scientific purposes. A cow called Bessie now carries the one remaining gaur foetus. "Noah will be just the first creature up the ramp of the ark of endangered species that we and other scientists are currently attempting to clone," researchers Robert Lanza, Betsy Dresser and Philip Damiani wrote in an article about their work that appears in the magazine Scientific American. "Plans are under way to clone the African bongo antelope, the Sumatran tiger and that favourite of zoo lovers, the reluctant-to-reproduce giant panda," they added. Both sexes ACT also intends to revive an extinct species of Spanish mountain goat called bucardo. The last known bucardo was killed nine months ago by a falling tree. But some of the animal's cells were preserved and these will now be used to bring the goat "back to life" next year. Normally, a clone shares all the genetic characteristics of the original cell, including sex, which means a breeding population cannot be created. But the ACT team hopes to gain permission from the Spanish authorities to use the latest molecular techniques to insert male chromosomes from a closely related goat species, creating male as well as female bucardos. However, some observers have deep reservations about the use of cloning to protect endangered animals, or even retrieve extinct creatures from history. Degraded habitats Dr Amanda Pickard, of the Zoological Society of London, said: "Cloning will only be able to generate a small number of individuals and that does not make a viable population in the long run. "We need to think of more basic genetic management techniques which are going to make a population viable for a longer period." And conservationists say there is little point in hanging on to animals if habitat loss means the only place the creatures can live is in a zoo. Gaur numbers have dwindled to about 36,000 because the animals have been hunted by humans and because the forests, bamboo jungles and grasslands in India and Southeast Asia where they live have become degraded. 'Fighting chance' But the ACT team said it was simply not acceptable to sit back and watch animals disappear. "I've heard a lot of people saying we are playing God," Dr Robert Lanza told the BBC. "Well, we do play God when we wreak havoc on the environment, we play God when we destroy their habitats and shoot them for sport. "The least we can do is try to reverse some of that damage, to give these species a fighting chance of surviving in the wild." It is thought about 11% of birds, 25% of mammals and 34% of fish have numbers so low that their survival is threatened. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- news.bbc.co.uk

To: AugustWest who wrote (271)	11/1/2001 1:09:29 PM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 358

Farmers say vampire creatures have killed sheep A family of farmers in the Mexican state of Chihuahua say mysterious vampire-like creatures have killed and sucked the blood of more than 60 sheep in the weeks leading up to Halloween. The state news agency Notimex reported that farmer Ramiro Parra Gonzalez was heading to his field outside the city of Bocoyna on Wednesday when stumbled upon 35 dead sheep. All were found without a drop of blood in their bodies and with two small bite marks on their necks. Parra Gonzalez told police that the slayings were the work of the "chupacabras", or "goat-suckers," a group of legendary beasts that have terrorised his family, Notimex reported. Parra Gonzalez said he heard dogs who normally sleep in his fields begin to howl exactly at midnight on Wednesday. A few minutes later he heard the dogs running for their lives. "I thought it was probably a fox," Parra Gonzalez told Notimex, adding that he might not have liked what he would have seen had he ventured outside to investigate. The mysterious attacks started on October 10 when Parra Gonzalez's brother, Francisco, said he returned to his fields after lunch to find the lifeless, bloodless bodies of 12 sheep and one pig. Then on the morning of October 25, another relative, Martin Parra Orpinel, said he found 16 of his sheep dead and another 14 gravely injured. All had been bitten on the neck and mysteriously lost a lot of blood, Parra Orpinel told authorities. A local police spokesman said authorities were investigating all three incidents. Rumors of goat-suckers spread across Latin America several years ago, though many officials dismissed the reports, saying animals were being killed by wolves, dogs or coyotes. Story filed: 01:13 Thursday 1st November 2001 ananova.com