40-Ton Whale Crash-Lands On Yacht!
telegraph - The pair were enjoying calm seas off the South African coast when the animal flipped into the air and smashed into their mast.
Ralph Mothes, 59, and Paloma Werner, 50, were helpless as the beast thrashed around on their 33ft vessel before slipping back into the water.
Miss Werner said: "It really was quite incredible but very scary. The whale was about the same size as the boat.
"We'd spotted it about 100 metres away and thought that was the end of it. Then suddenly it was right up beside us.
"I assumed it would go underneath the boat but instead it sprang out of the sea. We were very lucky to get through it, as the sheer weight of the thing was huge.
"There were bits of skin and blubber left behind, and the mast was wrecked. It brought down the rigging too.
"Thank goodness the hull was made of steel and not fibreglass or we could have been ruined."
Moments before the animal leapt it had pounded its tail on the surface of the water in a 'lob-tailing' ritual to communicate with other whales.
The shaken couple, who are experienced seafarers with the Cape Town Sailing Academy, used their engine to get back to shore in Table Bay.
Whales are a common sight in the Atlantic Ocean off the Western Cape coast at this time of year as they come near the shore to breed.
Thousands of tourists flock to the region's seaside resorts every year to spot the mammals during the South African winter from June to November.
Hermanus, a popular destination around 80 miles east of Cape Town, employs a 'whale crier' to walk through the town announcing where whales have been seen.
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More 'Mr. Mike' Brouhaha
Bigfoot investigator Sharon Lee of The Bigfoot Field Reporter was asked to re-post her most recent 'Mr. Mike' blog The Ghost of Bigfoot and Mr. Mike on Cryptomundo by editor Craig Woolheater. Well, the content of Sharon's post was apparently taken as a slight by cryptozoologist, author and contributing writer Loren Coleman who, in turn, posted his take on Sharon's post at Mr. Mike Melodrama: Critical Thinkers Are Not Close-Minded. To make matters worse, blogger Javier Ortega at Ghost Theory decided to get in on the act and offered his two cents at “Backyard Bigfoot”: It’s Getting Messy. Anyway, this lead to a 'comment war' on the three blogs.
This incident alone demonstrates the current problem in the Sasquatch investigation world. Too many traditional 'chiefs' telling the progressive 'braves' what they think should be accepted as fact. Some may call it 'critical thinking'...others may consider it 'being intolerant'. The point is that any attempts to thwart and discredit research, field investigation and theory development of this phenomenon is not only detrimental but frustrating to many cryptid enthusiasts...namely, those who read our blogs, watch the TV shows and buy the books...Lon
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No Tigers Prowling Dallas...Probably Bobcats
dallasnew - Police searched downtown Dallas last night after several callers reported seeing two tigers near Union Station.
Police believe the tigers were actually two small bobcats, said Kevin Janse, a Dallas police spokesman.
"People getting off the train spotted them and ran into Union Station," Janse said.
Several officers and a helicopter patrolled the area overnight but found no sign of the 50-pound cats. Police contacted the Dallas Zoo and the nearby circus and said that no animals had escaped.
Police have no idea where the animals came from.
Several homeless people in the area were advised last night that the cats may be on the loose, but Janse doesn't see the sighting as a threat to citizens.
"As far as people dealing with everyday comings and goings, I don't think people need to worry," Janse said.
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Woman With Multiple Wombs 'pregnant with two babies who are not twins'
telegraph - The 34 year-old has a rare condition known as uterus didelphys, which means she has two uteruses.
Mrs Cromar, from Murray, near Salt Lake City, Utah, has been told she is due to have a boy and a girl. They are not twins and are due at different times.
Medical experts say the chance of conceiving in both uteruses is about one in five million.
Less than 100 people in the world are known to have "double pregnancies".
At her first ultrasound doctors told the delivery and labour nurse that one baby was five weeks and a day old and the other six weeks and a day.
Mrs Cromar, who with husband Joel, 33, already have three children aged under eight, said she knew she had the rare uterine condition but it had not affected her other pregnancies.
But she admitted she was nervous, but very excited, at the prospect of the double birth next year.
Doctors have warned her, the condition carried a risk of premature labour and low birth weight.
"I'm a little nervous, just because I know what can happen, but I'm really excited," she told her local television station.
"It's pretty rare. We are pretty thankful, pretty happy.
“Joel didn't believe me for a little while, though.”
Steve Terry, her doctor, said he was surprised when the ultrasound first revealed the double pregnancy.
"Angie and I both had the look of surprise," he said.
He said the there were less than 100 women worldwide who have reportedly had the same condition.
"She is in a small club," he said.
Mrs Cromar, a nurse in the maternity unit at one of her local hospitals, has been told the babies, who are now at more than 20 weeks, are developing normally.
They will join her other children, Alex, eight, Luke, four and Sammy, two.
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Hugo Chavez Exhumes 19th-Century Hero Simón Bolívar to Prove Conspiracy Theory
miaminewtimesVenezuelan President Hugo Chávez seems to be acting absolutely insane. At least more than usual. He took to Twitter to let the world know he cried tears of joy after seeing the 180-year-old remains of South American hero Simón Bolívar. Chávez had the corpse exhumed with the hopes of somehow proving Bolívar died due to poisoning by Colombian rivals and not through disease. Yes, Chávez literally wept at the sight of the skeleton. Bonkers.
Bolívar was a Venezuelan military leader and former president who led much of South America to political independence from Spanish rule and set the groundwork for democracy in much of the country.
Chávez has already metaphorically desecrated Bolívar's grave by subverting the democratic system in Venezuela for which Bolívar helped fight (though, then again, Bolívar did decide to name himself dictator once), but now Chávez has quite literally desecrated the man's grave.
History has it that Bolívar died at the age of 47 after a battle with tuberculosis. Chávez seems to believe Colombian rivals poisoned Bolívar. It's probably not at all a coincidence that Chávez himself has an antagonistic relationship with the present-day leaders of Colombia.
So now Chávez has had Bolívar's bones dug up and wants to prove, somehow, the guy was poisoned.
When Chávez first saw the bones, he apparently cried.
"What amazing moments we have lived tonight! We have seen the remains of the great Bolívar," Chavez tweeted in Spanish when the casket was opened.
"My God, my God... my Christ, our Christ... I confess we have cried, we have sworn. I tell them: This glorious skeleton must be Bolívar because you can feel his presence. My God."
Chávez even had a ceremony involving the casket broadcast on television.
A U.S. scientist, analyzing records of Bolívar's symptoms, said it's possible he was a victim of arsenic poisoning. However, the scientist said it's unlikely the death was murder, and it might have resulted from levels of the poison in water or medicine.
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World Record 130 lb Blue Catfish Caught on Missouri River
Greg Bernal from Florissant and Janet Momphard from St. Charles landed a world record setting catfish today.
The blue catfish weighs in at 130 pounds. It beat the Missouri state record by 27 pounds and the world record by 6 pounds.
It took the fishing pair 15 minutes to get it to their boat. It took 30 minutes and 2 nets to get the fish in their boat and out of the Missouri River near the Columbia Bottom conservation area.
They used a chunk of an Asian carp that had jumped into their boat for bait.
A lot of paperwork will have to be filed to certify the fish as a world record. But the Missouri Department of Conservation says there’s no doubt it broke the record.
Fortean / Oddball News - 7/21/2010
