Monday, November 29, 2010

Monsters: Man-Made...




Most of the things I talk about at this blog are monsters (or, perhaps more correctly, unknown creatures) that may live and lurk amongst us, but that have no direct, or even indirect, connection to us. But, what of those monsters that, without us, simply would not even exist in the first place?

Well, these are the very beasts that Dr. Bob Curran focuses on to an in-depth degree in his new book: Man-Made Monsters: A Field Guide to Golems, Patchwork Soldiers, Homunculi, and Other Creatures Creatures.

And, if you're wondering what it's all about, you can find my just-posted review of the book right here...

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

NASA and Monsters


This week, I’m pleased to announce, my new book is published: The NASA Conspiracies: The Truth Behind the Moon Landings, Censored Photos, and the Face on Mars. And while the book focuses, for the most part, on such issues as UFO sightings by astronauts and tales of outer-space conspiracy, it also addresses claims that NASA may have had some involvement in incidents relative to unknown animals.

Included in the book are accounts concerning alleged NASA knowledge of (A) Puerto Rico's pesky Chupacabras; (B) the Bigfoot controversy; and (C) even a strange Mothman-type beast seen near NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas back in the 1980s.

For more information on the book, click here and here.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Bigfoot Quest Tonight

Here's Bob and Mike to tell you about tonight's Bigfoot Quest show:

Hello to all of our friends:

It's now been three years since the Bigfoot Quest radio show first debuted on BlogTalkRadio. So please join your hosts Bob Coyne and Mike Killen for this special show as we celebrate the anniversary of our third year on internet radio! Over these past three years we’ve had some great guests that have helped make this show a success and we’ve also enjoyed the support of our audience. If not for all our guests that have been gracious enough to accept our invitation and find the time to appear on the show and our loyal listeners who join us in our chat room Tuesday nights or download and listen to the show through the archives, this show would not be possible! So in gratitude we want to say a special thank you to all of you who make this show possible and hope many of you can join us in our live chat this week for this special anniversary show!

Where: www.blogtalkradio.com/bigfoot_quest

When: Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Time: 9:00 P.M. Eastern Time

Bob Coyne & Mike Killen

Reviewing the Dogman

I've just posted - at my Reviews blog - a review of Linda Godfrey's new book, The Michigan Dogman: Werewolves and Other Unknown Canines Across the U.S.A. This is a book you have to read!!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Crypto-Rats at Roswell

The whole notion that government bodies are deeply interested in certain facets of cryptozoology, and may have actively covered up specific events is not a new one. There are, for example, tales of official agencies in the US having secret knowledge of the true nature of Bigfoot.

Mysterious "Government Officials" are rumored to have confiscated the bodies of "Big-Cats" found dead in the British countryside.

And there are stories of military groups secretly using tales of crypto-creatures to possibly hide their own clandestine activities (such as the infamous tale of Paddler, as told by Patrick Huyghe).

And this is a subject I have been doing much research on lately, and which I'll be revealing far more about in the near future. In the meantime, here's two such cases that you may not be aware of.

This one - my latest Lair of the Beasts column over at Mania.com - delves into the strange tale of a Chupacabras encounter on the island of Puerto Rico, to which are attached curious "Men in Black" overtones...

Then there's the following, which is beyond any shadow of doubt one of the strangest stories I've ever heard - and, I can say for certain, I've heard some very strange ones!

A couple of weeks ago, I gave a Saturday morning lecture at the Emily Fowler Library in Denton, Texas on the subject of my book co-written with Ken Gerhard, Monsters of Texas. As is usually the case when I do lectures, I allow time for a Q&A, and audience interaction.

LONE STAR STATE BEASTS:



And, on this particular day I got a couple of interesting stories about large, exotic cats seen around Texas, a tale of a giant-catfish, and several more accounts of out-of-place or over-sized animals in the Lone Star State.

However...the strangest of all flummoxed even me! That is was linked to the infamous Roswell, New Mexico UFO crash of July 1947 only makes things even stranger!

As anyone and everyone with knowledge of Roswell will be aware, when the event occurred, certain materials found at the crash-site were flown to Carswell Air Force Base, Texas, bounded on the north side by Lake Worth - and which, in 1969, became briefly infamous for its sightings of a strange "Goat-Man"-type beast. But, I digress!

CARSWELL AIR FORCE BASE:



The story told at the Emily Fowler Library, as both I and the rest of the audience listened, was, I believe, second or third-generation. So, yes, we are delving into near friend-of-a-friend territory. With that in mind, the story was that when the strange debris was flown to Carswell, so was "something else" that was found among the wreckage.

That "something else," we were told, was a pack of large, rat-like animals, that appeared to be very intelligent, moved and acted in group-fashion, and that were highly vicious and very weird. And that was about it: a fragmentary story of truly weird proportions.

Whether or not the story has even the merest grain of truth to it, or if it's just some weird folkloric tale, I have no idea. But, for what it's worth, that was the tale!

It's interesting to note, of course, that theories for what really happened at Roswell aren't just focused on tales of UFOs or secret "Mogul" balloons of the type that the the Air Force stubbornly insists came down at Roswell.

My very own Body Snatchers in the Desert book, for example, suggested that the affair had far more to do with secret, high-altitude balloon experimentation - involving human guinea-pigs - undertaken in the New Mexico desert.

BODY SNATCHERS IN THE DESERT:



And, there's another thing: we know, too, that the military was testing all manner of vehicle (including captured German V-2 rockets) at the New Mexico-based, ultra-secret White Sands facility. Some of those early flights had payloads that included monkeys, mice and other animals.







BLAST OFF!



Could it be that at least a part of the Roswell legend was born out of the secret launch and crash of such a craft of down-to-earth, and non-alien proportions, and that had a payload of rats aboard?

Given what we know about the early years of experimentation to place animals into high-altitude states, and near-Earth orbit (click here for more details, from NASA, on the mice, monkeys and other animals that preceded the astronauts of Russia and the United States), maybe this tale of strange, rat-like animals taken to Carswell AFB in the summer of 1947, was based upon distorted memories of real rats taken to the base after the crash of a secret device, with such critters aboard.

DARKLORE AND ROSWELL:



And there's one final thing on this issue: in Darklore Vol III (published in 2009 by Greg Taylor of The Daily Grail website), I wrote an update to Body Snatchers and included a summary of a series of previously-classified FBI documents I had secured via the terms of the Freedom of Information Ac. Those files told the story of how a young boy had been killed some time in the late 1940s by a rat-bite in Lincoln County, New Mexico - which just happens to be where the Roswell debris was found.

Not only that: there were fears on the part of the FBI that the boy had died of "plague," and that the plague may have resulted from the actions of Japan's notorious Unit 731 (whose actions also feature heavily in my Body Snatchers in the Desert).

Even more intriguing: the official FBI files on this young boy's death from a rat-bite right in the heart of where the Roswell crash occurred, were shared with Air Force Intelligence, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the CIA!

And that's about it, for now! Strands of a larger puzzle, or simply strands of rumors, legends, tales and not much else? Was something truly strange afoot near Roswell that involved Unit 731, plague-infected rats, and the launch of some secret device? I have no real idea, but, whatever the truth - and, granted there's a high degree of speculation here! - if anyone has ever heard of anything even remotely resembling this curious story told to those of us at the Emily Fowler Library a couple of weeks ago, do let me know!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Mothman Tonight






On tonight's episode of the Exploring All Realms show I co-host with Raven Meindel, the guest will be Jeff Wamsley, a native of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and the author of the books Mothman: Facts Behind the Legend; and Mothman; Behind the Red Eyes. The show starts at 9.00 PM Eastern time, and can be found right here. If you're into the mystery of Mothman, don't miss it!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Animals at War

I often refer here to sightings of weird creatures seen roaming around England's Cannock Chase woods, near to where I grew up. Well, this new story doesn't deal with unknown animals, but is a Chase-based tale of a distinctly animal-nature, but in a very different way...

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Mothman 44

As Mothman creeps ever further into middle-age, Loren Coleman provides us with a cool, new post on what is arguably the world's most famous winged-whatsit.

The Thylacine Lives?

Check out this post at CFZ Australia. Does the Thylacine still live, and is this the evidence??? Maybe!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Chupa-Chasing

Just recently, I traveled up to Oklahoma to film a segment for the local Fox News channel on a sighting there of a so-called "Texas Chupacabras."

As I note in the segment, there's absolutely no doubt at all that these animals are canine, but there do seem to be some genetic anomalies going on too. For example, take a look at the photograph that appears in this film segment, and you'll see how the front limbs look extremely short, which is typical of a number of witness reports.

Here's the link.

The Michigan Dogman




A few days ago, Linda Godfrey mailed me a review-copy of her brand new book, The Michigan Dogman: Werewolves and Other Unknown Canines Across the USA.

I've started reading the book, and as is the case with all Linda's titles, this one does not disappoint and is packed with new data. As soon as I've read it, I'll be doing a full review. You'll definitely want to read this book!

The Rock-Apes

Over at Cryptomundo, Loren Coleman gives us an update on his thoughts concerning the Rock-Apes of Vietnam...

Night-Ravens

Check out Karl Shuker's latest, excellent post - on the fascinating history of Night-Ravens...

India: An Update

Jon Downes has finally heard from Richard Freeman regarding the latest news from the India expedition. Over to Jon...

I received an email from Richard Freeman this morning. The absence of earlier news from them is simple - "Hi Jon, Sorry for the the delay, this is the first working computer I have come across since I got to India".

You may remember that Chris Clark was unwell on the flight over, causing some concern here at base camp. Richard continues: "Chris has had some chest pains whilst climbing up hills. He's going for a check-up today". It goes without saying that he is in our thoughts and prayers.

As always seems to be the case, the team go in search of one unknown animal and find reports of several others:

"We have interviewed many witnesses including a shaman. As well as the mande burung we have uncovered reports of a huge (15-18m) crested serpent called the sankuni".

The sankuni seems very similar if not identical to the naga which Richard hunted in Thailand ten years ago: "It is associated with rainfall and is blamed for landslides. One was supposedly shot in 1940 in a lake near the border with Bangaladesh. It had killed a number of people so a group of armed men hunted it. The shaman reported being chased by a huge, upright walking man-like beast and seeing a sankuni slithering out of a river cave".

Back to the mande burung, "Another man saw a severed, preserved hand in a village market" and they also "found what may be the femur of a bipedal animal in a cave in Seju".

And there is other news as well: "We may have also found evidence of a gigantic muntjac even bigger than the giant muntjac, and a possible new sub-species or population of the red panda".

And finally "We put up camera traps and will be interviewing recent witnesses soon".

It looks like a momentous expedition so far. Well done lads (and get well soon Chris).

Note from Nick: Yep, let's all wish Chris a good, speedy recovery.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Tonight on Bigfoot Quest

Here's Bob and Mike from Bigfoot Quest to tell you about tonight's show:

Hello Friends:

Please join your hosts Bob Coyne and Mike Killen as we welcome Canadian wildlife biologist Dr. John Bindernagel to the show. Dr. Bindernagel is well known in the Bigfoot community as being one of the very few members of the scientific community who is actively involved in Bigfoot research. He is also known to the public at large through his appearances on television programs such as Best Evidence: Bigfoot, On the Trail of Bigfoot and MonsterQuest. His interest in the subject of Bigfoot began in 1963 while he was a studying wildlife management at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Though interested in learning more, he didn’t begin his field research efforts until 1975 when his family moved from Ontario to British Columbia. Dr Bindernagel and his wife found and cast tracks in 1988 and he believes these creatures do in fact inhabit the forests of North America. Ten years later in 1998 his first book on the subject, North America’s Great Ape: the Sasquatch, was published. A few weeks ago his second book, The Discovery of the Sasquatch, which he had been working on for the past 7 years was published. This is sure to be an interesting and informative show you won’t want to miss! If you can, please join us in our live show chat. It's always a lot of fun and we love to interact live with our listeners.

Where: www.blogtalkradio.com/Bigfoot_Quest

When: Tuesday November 9, 2010

Time: 9:00 P.M. Eastern

Bob Coyne & Mike Killen

Friday, November 5, 2010

Animal Forteana

For anyone and everyone interested in the stranger, esoteric, weird, quasi-paranormal (okay, you get the picture!) aspects of Cryptozoology, I'd definitely suggest you take a regular look at Regan Lee's Animal Forteana blog, which contains a wealth of excellent, thought-provoking posts and data that - unfortunately - mainstream crypto often steers clear of. Fortunately, Regan does not steer clear of such matters, and here's the link where you can find out more...

Paranormal Kent and More

Neil Arnold reminds us that his new book, Paranormal Kent, is now available (see also this post from me on Neil's book).

And, here's a list of upcoming lectures from Neil:

Tuesday 9th November 2010: 7:30pm - London Earth Mysteries Circle (more details to come)

Wednesday 10th November 2010: 7:45pm - St Michael's Wives Club, Community Centre, Wrotham Rd, Welling, Kent, DA16 1HB

Thursday 11th November 2010: 8:00pm - Wye RAFA, Wye Village Hall, Wye.

Saturday 13th November 2010: 2:30pm - The Lighthouse, 28 Burlinton Drive,Beltinge, Herne Bay

Wednesday 17th November 2010: 7:30pm - Wigmore Library, 208 Fairview Ave, Wigmore, Gillinham, Kent, ME8 0PX Ticket event: 01634 235576

Tuesday 23rd November 2010: 7:30pm - Hythe Civic Society, Hythe Bay school, Cinque Ports Avenue, Hythe.

Thursday 25th November 2010: 2:30pm - Hans Volunteer Centre, Millennium Centre, Rainham.

Thursday 9th December: 11:30am - Crawley probus (more details to follow)

Tuesday 14th December 2010: 2:00pm - Shepway ARA, Holy Trinity Hall, Sandgate Rd, Folkestone.

Tuesday 14th December 2010: 7:45pm - Hawkenbury Allotment Holders Assoc, United Reformed Church Hall, Hawkenbury, Tunbridge Wells.

Monsters at the Library

If you happen to be in the town of Denton, Texas tomorrow morning, I'll be lecturing at the Emily Fowler Central Library (502 Oakland, Denton TX 76201-3102) from 11 A.M. to noon. The subject: the Monsters of Texas, including Bigfoot, the Goat-Man, the "Texas Chupacabras," sea-serpents, werewolves and much more!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Man-Made Monsters





Here's a book I received a review copy of in the mail yesterday: Man-Made Monsters by Dr. Bob Curran. I've only had chance to take a brief look at it so far, but it looks very good. I'll be reviewing it as soon as I've read it. And in the meantime, here's what the publisher - New Page Books - has to say about Man-Made Monsters:


Life exists all around us, in forms that we can readily and easily identify. But what if there were, lurking in the shadows, other forms of life that are not so familiar, creatures created not by Nature, but by Man? We know their names—Frankenstein, the Golem, the homunculi of the ancient alchemists; they exist in our stories and myths.

But just what are these mysterious creatures, and do they have some basis in reality?

In his fascinating and wide-ranging new book, Dr. Bob Curran explores man-made monsters and the truth behind the myths. You’ll learn fascinating details about:

• The 19th-century scientist who tried to bring the dead back to life—the model for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

• The Man of Clay who lumbered through the streets of medieval Prague at the command of early rabbis.

• Tales of robots that may have existed in the ancient world and threatened Greek and Roman warriors.

• Cloning and the artificial creation of life, and what strange and mysterious areas they may be heading into.

Man-Made Monsters is essential reading for anyone who wants to explore artificial beings and peer into the dark recesses of the human mind...where they may indeed be hiding.

Dr. Bob Curran was born in a remote area of County Down, Northern Ireland. Since leaving school, he has travelled throughout the world, fascinated by the myths and stories he has found. He has written a number of books looking at culture and lore, including Vampires; Lost Lands, Forgotten Realms; Zombies; and Werewolves, all for New Page Books. He lives in Northern Ireland with his wife and family.

Illustrator Ian Daniels, who has illustrated book covers for science fiction luminaries Marion Zimmer Bradley, Orson Scott Card, and Poul Anderson, lends his unique artwork to another New Page title, as he has to all of the books written by Dr. Curran.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Mammoths in Darklore 5




Volume Five of Darklore - the regular compilation of articles from Fortean writers and researchers on all range of phenomena - has just been published. The brainchild of Greg Taylor of the Daily Grail, you can find out more about the latest volume right here.

On the crypto angle, it includes a chapter from me on the allegations that isolated pockets of Mammoth might have lived far longer than science and conventional zoology tells us...