Free Republic

Encinitas city officials ---- already wrestling with how to handle a popular but unauthorized surfing Madonna mosaic installed under a rail bridge last month ---- discovered this week that another rogue public art project has gone up at a different bridge in town. But this artwork ---- a painting of a colorful creature with huge teeth along Coast Highway 101 ----- is likely to vanish much more quickly than the intricate stained-glass mosaic that made a huge splash when it appeared in late April. Plans are already in the works to cover up the art with a fresh coat of...

Hey Boudreaux, make some rice!

It may look like a creepy-crawly April Fool's joke - but an expert on deep-sea species says the bizarre giant bug shown in pictures circulating on the Internet is the real deal. "I've seen the pictures, and they are real, and they really do get that big," Craig McClain, assistant director of science for the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in North Carolina, told me today. McClain specializes in deep-sea biological systems and covers the subject on his Weblog, Deep Sea News. So he was the go-to guy when pictures of the bug, reportedly hauled up aboard a remotely operated vehicle...

What it is... Bryozoa

At 8 pm, just as pres bush began his farewell speech peotus obama left blair house for the 30 second drive to equinox restaurant on connecticut and I st. Pool is holding outside... DEVELOPING...

REMAINS of a mysterious "creature" washed up on a Long Island beach have set websites in United States abuzz with speculation about its origins. Hot on the heels of new claims from an ex-NASA astronaut about aliens visiting Earth, news of the find has excited conspiracy theorists around the world. Dubbed the Montauk Monster after the Long Island town where it was found, the creature has prompted speculation it was part of a secret mutant breeding program undertaken by the US Government. The Huffington Post has even given the creature its own blog.

OCOEE, Fla. -- A fish-like creature with "legs" caught in a Central Florida lake over the weekend sparked a flood of e-mails after photos of it were aired on Local 6. Shawna Mitchell said she was fishing on Starke Lake in Ocoee when she pulled something strange out of the water. Mitchell's photos showed what appeared to be a fish with two front legs and no scales. She said she was "freaked out a little bit" after pulling the creature to a pier. After Local 6 News aired the photos, viewers sent e-mails to Local6.com Sunday night suggesting it was...

A fanged creature found in Utah after some ice melted on a pond has stumped biologists trying to determine what it is. Officials said the pond may have been poisoned or the water may have run out of oxygen due to the thick ice. While checking the pond, the creature was spotted. "When we first saw that fish, we thought what in the ….. is that thing?" Utah Divison of Wildlife Resources Ben Boyce said. The fish was found with carp and goldfish that had been stocked in the pond. Biologists said they are not sure what the creature is...

...The man that was the land Gill Man in CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954), Ben Chapman, passed away this morning (February 21, 2008)...

As vulnerable as naked mole rats seem, researchers now find the hairless, bucktoothed rodents are invulnerable to the pain of acid and the sting of chili peppers. A better understanding of pain resistance in these sausage-like creatures could lead to new drugs for people with chronic pain, scientists added. Naked mole rats live in cramped, oxygen-starved burrows some six feet underground in central East Africa. Unusually, they are cold-blooded — which, as far as anyone knows, is unique among mammals. "They're the nicest, sweetest animals I've ever worked with — they look frightening, but they're very gentle," said neurobiologist Thomas...

Ancient glacier creatures brought back to life By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 8:35pm BST 06/08/2007 Creatures that once lived eight million years ago have been successfully thawed from the ice of an Antarctic glacier, in an experiment that sounds like a scene from a science fiction film. The feat of revival was managed with as yet unidentified single-celled microbes and should pose no health issues, say the scientists. However, it does show that evolution of simpler organisms is complicated by thawing glaciers which allow ancient bugs to contribute their old genes to modern populations. The finding is significant,...

"The animal, dubbed an "octosquid," is found off the Big Isle"

This creature was found by Russian soldiers on Sakhalin shoreline. Sakhalin area is situated near to Japan, it’s the most eastern part of Russia, almost 5000 miles to East from Moscow (Russia is huge). People don’t know who is it. According to the bones and teeth - it is not a fish. According to its skeleton - it’s not a crocodile or alligator. It has a skin with hair or fur. It has been said that it was taken by Russian special services for in-depth studies, and we are lucky that people who encountered it first made those photos before...

If you ask anyone around Hillary Clinton the question that everyone is asking, the answer comes back in a shot: The freshman Senator from New York is far too busy concentrating on her re-election in November to be giving even a passing thought to 2008. Thank you very much. But politics is ultimately a game of logistics, and the junior Senator is putting the machinery in place for a campaign that looks far grander than a re-election cakewalk in New York. All it will need is for someone to throw the switch. Against virtually nonexistent opposition for her Senate seat,...

The Beast of Cannock Chase is back - and on the hard-shoulder. Motorists on Junction 10A of the M6, near Cannock, jammed Highways Agency helplines on Wednesday morning, with reports of a 'wolf-like creature' racing between lanes at rush hour. Motorists looked on in disbelief as the three-foot long creature, described as 'greyish black', raced between lanes, dodging stunned motorists before diving for cover in nearby trees. Highways Agency staff joined motorway police to hunt for the creature and later stated the 'beast' was likely to be a husky dog. But a spokesperson at Saga Radio, whose eye-in-the-sky traffic reports...

OMAHA, Neb. -- A woman in west Omaha is trying to figure out what was prowling her back yard on Tuesday morning. Mary Ann Carta lives near 138th and Hamilton streets, and she took some pictures of the animal that she saw. She said it could be a bobcat, but it has her scared about taking her morning walk or allowing her grandchildren to play outside. "I was not afraid at the moment. I was in the house, but I was just thinking about yesterday with the grandkids it was like, what would I have done," Carta said. An expert...

What is the world's largest living creature? Scientists from the CSIC. the University of the Balearic Islands, Portugal, Carribean and the USA have discovered a Posidonia Oceanica, of more than 8 kilometers in length, and 100,000 years old. The 'Posideonia Oceanica' is, in layman's terms 'sea grass', and the wavy plains of this plant found off the coasts Ibiza and Formentera, have been, since 1999, part of the reason for the award to Ibiza as a 'Heritage of Humanity'. The huge plant was discovered between 'Es Freus' (the straits that separate Ibiza from Formentera) and the 'Ses Salines' beach....and quite...

LONDON (Reuters) - Japanese scientists have taken the first photographs of one of the most mysterious creatures in the deep ocean -- the giant squid. Until now the only information about the behavior of the creatures which measure up to 18 meters (59 feet) in length has been based on dead or dying squid washed up on shore or captured in commercial fishing nets. But Tsunemi Kubodera, of the National Science Museum, and Kyoichi Mori of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association, both in Tokyo have captured the first images of Architeuthis attacking bait 900 meters (yards) below the surface in...

A rare - and dead - oarfish washed up at City Beach in Perth yesterday, proving more than a handful for Troy Coward, Andy Mole and Axel Strauss (pictured). The serpent-like animal was found six metres offshore, bringing to at least six the number of oarfish that have washed up on the West Australian coast in recent months. Prefering to live in the depths of the ocean they have only been known to come to the surface when sick or dying and have rarely been seen alive. Living in the world's warmer oceans, it feeds on plankton and is harmless...

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a peripheral was stirring, not even a mouse; The modem was hung by the keyboard with care In hopes that a download soon would be there. The pirates were nestled all snug in their beds While visions of unprotects danced in their heads. And the wife in her kerchief, and I in my cap Had just settled down for a long winter's nap, When up on the hard drive there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the monitor...

LAKELAND, FLA. - Urban legends are supposed to be legends and that's all. But if you ask Jennifer Ward about the Florida skunk ape, she will tell you it stepped out of the mists of myth and into reality. "I never thought anything like that was out there before," Ward, 30, said recently. "But I know there is now." Ward's encounter with the hairy creature came in August, about a week after Hurricane Charley, along a rural stretch of road as she was driving home from a friend's house. Her daughters were asleep in the back seat and it was...

Papers have been flapping with new headlines about the latest in a long line of alleged dinosaur ancestors of birds. This one is claimed to be a sensational dinosaur with feathers on its hind legs, thus four ‘wings’.1 This was named Microraptor gui—the name is derived from words meaning ‘little plunderer of Gu’ after the paleontologist Gu Zhiwei. Like so many of the alleged feathered dinosaurs, it comes from Liaoning province of northeastern China. It was about 3 feet (1 meter) long from its head to the tip of its long tail, but its body was only about the size...

Mystery Creature Lurks In Baltimore County POSTED: 5:19 am EDT July 19, 2004 UPDATED: 5:46 am EDT July 19, 2004 GLYNDON, Md. -- A mystery animal is on the loose in Baltimore County and not even the experts can pin down what it is. A Glyndon man found a way to secretly record the beast while it grazed in his yard. For a while it was just lurking in the woods watching the Wroe family until the Wroes started watching it. SNIP The beast is not shy and visiting most often under bright sun. While no one here knows what...