Tag Archives | Monsters

Many Mesopotamian Monsters Malevolent and Malign

By on October 9, 2012 in News 0

Via Cryptomundo: a recent issue of corporate publication Saudi Aramco World includes a Halloween-appropriate offering for its readers: a feature on monsters of Mesopotamia and their similarities to traditional Western favorites, like vampires, werewolves and zombies. Here’s a snip:

A particularly vivid description of a group of thoroughly evil, vampire-like utukku known as the Seven Spirits appears in a 3000-year-old Assyrian cuneiform incantation:

Seven are they!
Knowing no care,
They grind the land like corn;
Knowing no mercy,
They rage against mankind;
They spill their blood like rain,
Devouring their flesh [and] sucking their veins….
They are demons full of violence,
Ceaselessly devouring blood.

Charming, huh? Memorize it for your next public gathering!

Consider the ironies of an oil company publishing an article on vampires and read more here.… Read the rest

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Siberia Experiences Spate Of Yeti Sightings

By on September 30, 2012 in News 8

Furry creatures which walk human-style on two legs are being spotted left and right by residents in Siberia, oddly coinciding with the timing of a Bigfoot conference set to take place next month. The Siberian Times reports:

Yetis have been ‘sighted’ recently in three different remote areas in Kemerovo region, according to local reports. Russia is to host a conference and expedition in search of the yeti next month.

One was spotted this month by an unnamed state inspector in the Shorsky National Park, says local government official Sergei Adlyakov. ‘The creature did not look like a bear and quickly disappeared after breaking some branches. Earlier in August, fisherman Vitaly Vershinin saw two creatures near Myski village, according to a local Siberian newspaper. It was reported that several days after this sighting ‘local people saw a strange creature one more time’.

Officials in Kuzbass, Kemerovo region, told of another alleged sighting.’We were sailing in a boat without an engine.

… Read the rest

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Nigerian Woman Gives Birth to “Funny Creature”

By on September 17, 2012 in News 20

Picture: Liza Phoenix (CC)

AllAfrica.com reports that a Nigerian woman gave birth to a horse-like creature this past Tuesday at the World Liberation Ministry in Benin City:

The woman, we were told, had been in her matrimonial home for 11 years without a baby and the pastor said there was ‘a woman here for 11 years, no child,’ that the person always got pregnant but whenever she went for test, it will show and at another time it will not show again”.

Ogbovoh continued: “So the woman came out and the pastor said ‘let us put you in an all night on Friday, but the woman pleaded with the congregation to go on with the prayers since she may not be able to wait. So the pastor now agreed. The pastor called her and asked the men to give little space and the pastor insisted that something inside the woman was not a human being, he said it was a funny creature.

… Read the rest

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Visiting The International Museum Of Cryptozoology

By on August 31, 2012 in News 1

When I have children someday, our weekend afternoon trips will be to the other zoo. Atlas Obscura on your new favorite cultural institution, the Portland, Maine-based Cryptozoology Museum, which offers Bigfoot poop, among other attractions:

Loren Coleman started pursuing unusual, often inexplicable animals in 1960, and has since become one of the world’s foremost experts in the field of cryptozoology. The discipline, as defined by the master himself, “is the study of hidden or unknown animals. Zoological species that, to-date, remain unverified by science, such as Yetis, Bigfoot, Lake Monsters, and Sea Serpents, as well as hundreds of other yet-to-be-found animals (cryptids) worldwide. It also encompasses the study of animals of recent discovery, such as the coelacanth, okapi, megamouth shark, giant panda, and mountain gorilla.”

Coleman has amassed an unrivaled collection of specimens, replicas, and artifacts relating to famous and lesser-known cryptids, including the eight-and-a-half foot tall, 300-pound “Crookston Bigfoot,” a life-size coelacanth, P.

… Read the rest

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Eleven Scary Evil Monsters from World Religions

By on August 17, 2012 in News 11

Picture: J.A.S. Collin de Plancy (PD)

Via Mental Floss:

Terrifying monsters have lumbered, lurched, stalked and devoured their way through many world religions for untold millennia.

They were sometimes devised to frighten for purposes of cultural control – or as mythologic personifications of harsh, inexplicable forces. In the case of the Book of Revelation, monsters often symbolized the oppressive political tactics of the Roman empire.

Today’s religious monsters might well include: a ghoulish pedophile Priest with scaly-gropy fingers; or a polyester-swaddled fire-breathing Baptist Preacher; or maybe a grinning Televangelist that spews fundamentalist bile from its jack-o-lantern head; or a shape-shifting Republican p

olitician that can somehow take the form of & draw hateful power from every pitchfork wielding mob it encounters, no matter the religion.

Now if only Sam & Dean from “Supernatural” would hunt THEM!… Read the rest

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In Search of the Fouke Monster: Boggy Creek Revisited

By on August 6, 2012 in News 6

In a lot of ways, 1972′s cryptid horror film The Legend of Boggy Creek was a ground-breaker: a pseudo docudrama distributed by its producer and director Charles Pierce (who even sang the film’s theme song), it is considered by some people to have been one of the first indie films. Boggy Creek featured interviews with men and women who had encountered the “creature”, a Bigfoot-like monster supposed to lurk in the wilds of Arkansas. That the witnesses were amateur actors recruited from the small town in which the zero-budget movie was filmed actually filmed brought the movie a scrappy sort of authenticity. It was a scary movie, and a lot of fun, but what some of the film’s drive-in audience may not have known was that it the movie was inspired by (reputedly) true events.

Stories of a Bigfoot-like cryptid wandering the woods of Fouke, Arkansas started circulating in 1971 after local residents Bobby and Elizabeth Ford reported that a monster had attacked their home late at night on May 2.… Read the rest

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Mummies Made Out Of McDonald’s Food

By on April 27, 2012 in News 11

Via Kickstarter, a West Texan artist named Ben is raising funds to construct more of his specialty: an army of life-size mummies made from McDonald’s burgers. He draws a murky connection between the obsession with immortality shared by ancient Egyptians and our society, and the fact that McDonald’s meat never decays. Personally I like the McDonald’s mummies because they seem to represent the dark corners of Americana culture sprung to life in monstrous form, ready to wreak vengeance:

mummy… Read the rest

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Mysterious 450-Million-Year-Old Sea Monster Fossil Baffles Scientists

By on April 26, 2012 in News 7

monsterKing of the jellyfish? Or a giant, living, underwater doormat? Whatever your worst nightmare is, this ancient sea-bound entity could be it. LiveScience reports:

A mysterious fossil that has evoked images of a sea monster roaming the shallow waters of prehistoric Ohio [has] scientists stumped as to what kind of creature it was. One thing is sure: The enigmatic “blob” — discovered in elliptical pieces that, when fitted together, extended about 7 feet long, was once alive.

The team, along with the fossil hunter who discovered the 450-million-year-old specimen, suggest a range of possibilities: a type of huge algae or microbial mat, or even a member of the cnidarian family, which includes jellyfish (though scientists concede the jellyfish idea is highly unlikely).

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An Overview Of America’s Urban Monsters

By on April 6, 2012 in News 4

Atlantic Cities examines legendary mythological creatures of our country’s metropolises, including the horned Goatman rumored to hide in Ft. Worth’s Lake Worth and the tiny red dwarf blamed for all of Detroit’s historical woes. Most of these reveal more about our collective psyche and fears rather than what is actually secretly living in our midst — although a notable exception is the mole people (lower left) living below the surface of New York, who turned out to be very real, if elusive.

monsteres… Read the rest

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Human Arrival Blamed For Extinction Of Australia’s Giant Creatures

By on March 29, 2012 in News 23

P1030968Imagine if our ancestors hadn’t stumbled upon Australia, and the continent were still populated with its magically large fauna of thousands of years ago. UPI writes:

Human hunting caused the extinction of ancient giant animals, or “megafauna,” in Australia about 40,000 years ago, scientists say. A study has put the blame for the extinction of 600-pound kangaroos and birds twice the size of modern emus on humans rather than on climate change as was once thought.

“The debate really should be over now,” John Alroy, from Macquarie University in Sydney, said. “Hunting did it, end of story.” The researchers studied fungi found in the dung of large herbivores in cores of sediment from a fossilized swamp in Queensland dating back 130,000 years.

The study shows numbers of megafauna species were stable until 40,000 years ago despite two periods of climate change, the researchers said, suggesting newly arrived humans hunted the animals to extinction.

… Read the rest

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