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Oxford Times, Thursday, January 21, 2010, p19.
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Bigfoot might not be real, but the fascination is
By MARCUS SCHNECK, The Patriot-News
January 23, 2010, 12:19PM
Eric Altman is awaiting test results on “some possible hair samples.” Altman is the director of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society. He collected the samples recently in Clearfield and Jefferson counties, which he described as Pennsylvania’s “hot area” for bigfoot reports.
Bigfoot sightings in the midstate are dwarfed by the dozens of reports that have come out of the state’s north-central wilds, Altman said. Adams and York counties provide some reports in “areas that are more remote, a little more wooded,” he said.
Most recently, in October, Tom Biscardi and the Searching for Bigfoot team were drawn to York County by rough amateur video in which they claimed to have seen a female bigfoot carrying an infant.
The existence of bigfoot may remain in doubt, but the fascination with the mythic creature endures.
While many Native American cultures have tales of bigfoot or sasquatch-like creatures in their folklore, modern interest in the phenomenon soared in 1951 with photographs of footprints in California. Most bigfoot reports arise from the West Coast.
The Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society, which was launched in 1998, boasts a few hundred followers. Dozens of similar groups exist nationwide.
The legend is the focus of the Bigfoot Film Festival, which runs Friday through Sunday at the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art at Millersburg.
Even those who want to believe in bigfoot are skeptical of its existence in Pennsylvania. In a state with 12 million residents, it seems likely the creature would have been spotted by now if he is here.
“We don’t track bigfoot sightings,” said Jerry Feaser, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. “The only time in recent years that there was a bigfoot sighting happened, coincidentally, the same week a bigfoot researcher was in the Harrisburg area.”
Investigators for the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society have recorded “some unusual footprints that we can’t really say are bigfoot,” Altman said.
Loren Coleman, one of the world’s most published cryptozoologists (researchers in the study of hidden species), said he thinks there is something real behind some of the bigfoot reports. In the last month, he said, he has heard of at least 10 legitimate reports, all in the northwestern U.S.
Chad Arment, a Lancaster County man who writes books on cryptozoology, does not rule out the presence of bigfoot in Pennsylvania. “There are some interesting old stories, particularly in Central Pennsylvania, of gorilla-like creatures,” he said. Still, Arment said the presence of bigfoot would be a “long shot” in Pennsylvania.
Scott Weidensaul, a Friedensburg nature writer who has written about the search for lost species, doubts that bigfoot is here. “It breaks my heart to say it, but I just don’t think it’s true,” he said. “We would have had a body by now."
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/01/bigfoot_might_not_be_real_but.html (Submitted by Caty Bergman)
January 23, 2010, 12:19PM
Eric Altman is awaiting test results on “some possible hair samples.” Altman is the director of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society. He collected the samples recently in Clearfield and Jefferson counties, which he described as Pennsylvania’s “hot area” for bigfoot reports.
Bigfoot sightings in the midstate are dwarfed by the dozens of reports that have come out of the state’s north-central wilds, Altman said. Adams and York counties provide some reports in “areas that are more remote, a little more wooded,” he said.
Most recently, in October, Tom Biscardi and the Searching for Bigfoot team were drawn to York County by rough amateur video in which they claimed to have seen a female bigfoot carrying an infant.
The existence of bigfoot may remain in doubt, but the fascination with the mythic creature endures.
While many Native American cultures have tales of bigfoot or sasquatch-like creatures in their folklore, modern interest in the phenomenon soared in 1951 with photographs of footprints in California. Most bigfoot reports arise from the West Coast.
The Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society, which was launched in 1998, boasts a few hundred followers. Dozens of similar groups exist nationwide.
The legend is the focus of the Bigfoot Film Festival, which runs Friday through Sunday at the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art at Millersburg.
Even those who want to believe in bigfoot are skeptical of its existence in Pennsylvania. In a state with 12 million residents, it seems likely the creature would have been spotted by now if he is here.
“We don’t track bigfoot sightings,” said Jerry Feaser, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. “The only time in recent years that there was a bigfoot sighting happened, coincidentally, the same week a bigfoot researcher was in the Harrisburg area.”
Investigators for the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society have recorded “some unusual footprints that we can’t really say are bigfoot,” Altman said.
Loren Coleman, one of the world’s most published cryptozoologists (researchers in the study of hidden species), said he thinks there is something real behind some of the bigfoot reports. In the last month, he said, he has heard of at least 10 legitimate reports, all in the northwestern U.S.
Chad Arment, a Lancaster County man who writes books on cryptozoology, does not rule out the presence of bigfoot in Pennsylvania. “There are some interesting old stories, particularly in Central Pennsylvania, of gorilla-like creatures,” he said. Still, Arment said the presence of bigfoot would be a “long shot” in Pennsylvania.
Scott Weidensaul, a Friedensburg nature writer who has written about the search for lost species, doubts that bigfoot is here. “It breaks my heart to say it, but I just don’t think it’s true,” he said. “We would have had a body by now."
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/01/bigfoot_might_not_be_real_but.html (Submitted by Caty Bergman)
ACS investigates photo of headless dog
23 January 2010
By Brian Chasnoff
Anonymous Internet users of the inflammatory sort, otherwise known as “trolls,” are descending upon and disseminating a photograph that appears to depict someone displaying the bloody, severed head of a dog.
Prodded by a rumor that the dog decapitators are San Antonio youths, the Police Department and Animal Care Services are investigating the photograph, ACS spokeswoman Lisa Norwood said.
“We still don't know that any laws were broken,” Norwood said. “Photoshop can do wonders.”
Norwood said she couldn't provide any details of the investigation because it's ongoing.
But she acknowledged rumors — some outlandish — that are echoing across chat rooms and Web sites of questionable taste with regard to the troubling photograph.
Among them: The Alamo City teenagers are embroiled in a bizarre role-playing game that emulates “Twilight,” a series of novels and films that depicts vampires and werewolves in battle, and the youths deem the headless dog a vanquished werewolf.
“There are references to ‘Twilight,' among other things,” Norwood said. “I don't know if you're familiar with the ‘Twilight' series, but it certainly doesn't espouse animal cruelty.”
She also warned the alleged crime could be just as fictional as the popular series.
“The Internet is a big, wide world,” Norwood said, “and it can often be rife with innuendo, allegations and outright hoax.”
http://www.mysanantonio.com/pets/82466817.html
(Submitted by Caty Bergman)
By Brian Chasnoff
Anonymous Internet users of the inflammatory sort, otherwise known as “trolls,” are descending upon and disseminating a photograph that appears to depict someone displaying the bloody, severed head of a dog.
Prodded by a rumor that the dog decapitators are San Antonio youths, the Police Department and Animal Care Services are investigating the photograph, ACS spokeswoman Lisa Norwood said.
“We still don't know that any laws were broken,” Norwood said. “Photoshop can do wonders.”
Norwood said she couldn't provide any details of the investigation because it's ongoing.
But she acknowledged rumors — some outlandish — that are echoing across chat rooms and Web sites of questionable taste with regard to the troubling photograph.
Among them: The Alamo City teenagers are embroiled in a bizarre role-playing game that emulates “Twilight,” a series of novels and films that depicts vampires and werewolves in battle, and the youths deem the headless dog a vanquished werewolf.
“There are references to ‘Twilight,' among other things,” Norwood said. “I don't know if you're familiar with the ‘Twilight' series, but it certainly doesn't espouse animal cruelty.”
She also warned the alleged crime could be just as fictional as the popular series.
“The Internet is a big, wide world,” Norwood said, “and it can often be rife with innuendo, allegations and outright hoax.”
http://www.mysanantonio.com/pets/82466817.html
(Submitted by Caty Bergman)
Winning picture disqualified from Wildlife Photographer of the year contest and pulled from Moors Valley exhibition
12:30pm Saturday 23rd January 2010By Nick Churchill
CONTROVERSY has dogged the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest and just two days before the competition exhibition was due to be unveiled at Moors Valley Country Park near Ringwood, the winning entry has been disqualified.
The picture, entitled the Storybook Wolf, by Spanish photographer Jose Luis Rodriguez, prompted a long-running debate as to whether it featured a wild wolf as the photographer claimed or a trained animal.
The photographer denies the wolf is a model wolf.
The competition organisers, however, effectively ended the argument on Wednesday by disqualifying the photograph, which will not now be included in the Moors Valley exhibition, which runs until February 28.
The judges have also decided there will not now be an overall winner.
In a statement, Louise Emerson, from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition office, said: “It saddens us to confirm that after a careful and thorough investigation into the image the Storybook Wolf, the co-owners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine, have disqualified the winning entry of the photographer José Luis RodrÃguez.
“The judging panel was reconvened and concluded that it was likely that the wolf featured in the image was an animal model that can be hired for photographic purposes and, as a result, that the image had been entered in breach of Rule 10 of the competition.”
The photographer, however, strongly denies that the wolf is a model.
• Because the disqualification was only announced on Wednesday, after Saturday's Daily Echo Magazine went to press, the photograph appears in a feature about the exhibition.
The article includes more stunning images which were entered in the competition, including the Highly Commended Terns in a Dive Queue by Winchester photographer Paul Sansome plus more details about the exhibition at Moors Valley.
See a selection of our favourite pictures from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition here.
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/4867972.Winning_picture_disqualified_from_Wildlife_Photographer_of_the_Year_competition/
(Submitted by Mark North)
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