Thursday, June 06, 2013
Bizarre Cryptid: Sigbin
The Sigbin is a terrifying creature from the Philippines, said to lurk in the shadows at night, who sucks the blood of victims by consuming their shadows (the Philippines has some amazingly bizarre cryptids: for some real horrors see this list). The Sigbin is said to walk backwards, with its head lowered between its hind legs. It has the convenient advantage of invisibility – and especially humans are vulnerable to its powers of deception. It resembles a mere hornless goat, but has very large ears which it can clap like a pair of hands and a long, flexible tail which can be used as a whip – it’s unlikely that this goat ever encountered serious problems while crossing the bridge to the Other Side. The Sigbin is said to emit a nauseating odor. Sometimes, it has a tendency to crabwalk backwards, looking for children to devour. In 2005, scientists in Borneo discovered a “cat-fox-like carnivore” with hind legs longer than its forelegs, suggesting that it was endowed with the awkward gait and terrifying physical appearance of the Sigbin. Indeed, many of the characteristics are uncannily similar – but no conclusive evidence has yet been unearthed. The Sigbin, evidently, hides its tracks most effectively.
Phantoms & Monsters: Cryptid Encounters
Cryptozoology A To Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature
Tales of the Cryptids: Mysterious Creatures That May or May Not Exist (Darby Creek Publishing)
Southern Right Whale Dolphin
The southern right whale dolphin is a small and slender species of mammal found in cool waters of the southern hemisphere. They are fast active swimmers and have no visible teeth and no dorsal fin. They are very graceful and often move by leaping out of the water continuously
How Modern Fortunetellers Pull Off Their Scams
The voice on the other end of the phone, spiky with transatlantic static, told Ranima Khanom that if the curse were lifted, one day she'd be worshiped like a god. The key step now was to build a temple in Egypt that would clear out the dark energy.
Sitting in her bedroom in Luton, 30 miles north of London, Khanom, 27, was getting used to such advice. In the four months she'd been swapping calls with the American psychic she knew as Sienna Miller, news flashes from the spirit realm had been reliably weird. But deity status didn't sound too bad.
"Bloody hell, who wouldn't want something like that? It was like a dream come true," she says today. "You're going to be like a god? It was going to be an end of all my suffering." Very interesting and long article....continue reading at Miami New Ties
Possible World-Record Shark Caught Off SoCal
A group of fishermen may have broken a world record with a huge shark caught off the coast of Huntington Beach.
A fisherman named Jason Johnston, from Mesquite, Texas, chartered a boat out of Huntington Beach on Monday.
His group hooked a massive shortfin mako shark about 15 miles offshore.
The shark was 11 feet long, 8 feet in girth and more than 1,300 pounds, according to the fishermen’s estimates.
It took more than two hours and a quarter-mile of line to reel in the shark, according to Johnston.
The shark was being taken to a weigh yard in Gardena to be certified by a weigh master.
It was expected to be donated to a research organization for study.
As they waited for news on their possible world record, the fishermen planned to head out again on Tuesday for another adventure. - KTLA
NOTE: witnessed an 700 lb+ Mako pulled out of the Chesapeake Bay near the Bay Bridge several years ago. 1300 lbs is really huge...glad it's going for research. Lon
66-year-old man discovers he is actually a woman
A Chinese man who went to the doctors with a swollen stomach was told that he is actually a woman.
The 66-year-old, who even has a beard, had lived his entire life as a man but was told by doctors in Hong Kong that his enlarged abdomen was caused by an ovarian cyst.
Tests revealed the patient suffered two rare genetic disorders that had gone undiagnosed.
The Hong Kong Medical Journal, which published the information yesterday, said only six cases of people with both disorders had ever been reported in medical literature.
Turner Syndrome usually results from a problem with the chromosomes and can leave women infertile and shorter than normal.
Women with the syndrome are missing one or part of their second X chromosome.
Hong Kong doctors found the patient was suffering from two rare genetic conditions.
Congenital adrenal hyperplasia is a group of inherited disorders of the adrenal gland that causes more male sex hormone to be produced.
The condition affects one in around 15,000 births and there is no cure.
Girls with CAH tend to have normal female reproductive organs but genitals that look male.
They may also have deeper voices, facial hair and may fail to menstruate.
All patients with the condition are tall as children but short as adults.
Girls with male-looking genitals will usually have surgery between ages 1 month and 3 months to correct the abnormal appearance.
Congenital adrenal hyperplasia affects one in around 15,000 births and causes male characteristics to appear early or inappropriately.
The patient had grown up an orphan and stopped growing after puberty at the age of 10 and was just 4.5ft tall.
The patient also had no testes and a 'micro-penis', according to the report.
Girls with the disorder have normal female reproductive organs but can suffer with fertility problems.
Seven doctors, writing in the medical journal, said the Vietnam-born patient would continue to live as a man and may be treated with testosterone replacement.
They said: 'Were it not due to the huge ovarian cyst, his intriguing medical condition might never have been exposed', according to AFP. - Daily Mail