Borneo Monster Photo: Fake or Fact?

Locals fear it. Cryptozoologists marvel at it. But is it real? That's the question.
London's Telegraph newspaper reported this week about the emergence of this photo, which appears to show a 100-foot snake in the Baleh river in Borneo.
Questions have arisen about whether this image is either faked or perhaps just a shot of a submerged log or some other object.
Dartmouth University computer science professor Hany Farid, who looked at the shot and reported on his findings in a Scientific American blog, says that because the photo is so grainy, "it's as if you took away 99 percent of a blood sample and asked me to do a forensic analysis." Wise words.
As an expert of digital photography forensics, Farid also says that since there aren't many pixels to analyze, there isn't much that they can say. Photos with such low resolution are the exact reason that people such as Hany and other people are out there. But grainy or not, that photo reveals something strange, either why somebody would make a hoax like that, or what that monster is and, is it dangerous?
While there are clearly doubters, local villagers don't count themselves among them. Those who reside along the banks of the river believe in the serpent's existence and refer to it as Nabau, after an ancient magical serpent which has the powers to turn itself into different animals.
The Telegraph reported that scientists unearthed the fossil of a snake that was longer than a bus this month. The 45-foot long monster was thought to live on a diet of crocodiles and giant turtles.

SLIders (and not the dimension-shifting types)

SLI (Street lamp interference) is a very rare phenomenon where a person finds that he or she can turn off lights just by walking under them.
I have had the opportunity to talk to an actual SLIder. I will call her Joan.
"I first found out I had SLI in 2000 or 2001. At first, I had thought, 'Wow, that street lamp just turned off,' but over time, I came to notice it. It happens not only to street lamps, but indoor lamps, too. I turn them off when I'm traveling in a group; I turn them off when I'm alone; and I even turn them off in the car."
And then came the most shocking parts. "About 50% of the time I'm putting in light bulbs, they blow out as soon as they connect with the socket, right in my hand! And also, I was putting on my robe, and when I was walking, sparks started to fly! I even have my boyfriend to vouch for me!"
We shall call her boyfriend, John. " I saw it. It was like those sparklers you see at the 4th of July!" he said.
In Joan's case, the SLI seems to be triggered by her emotions. "It usually happens to me during times of stress," said Joan. "It also happens when I'm happy, but mostly during times of stress. My theory is that it's the electrons in my body. The positive and negative ions start to act up and I turn off the lights. It usually happens to me at least twice a month, if not more."
For those, like Joan, who experience SLI, parts of life seems to be a matter of sitting and watching the sparks fly (or the lamps blow out.)

Bilbo Baggins Gets Real

It seems as if J.R.R. Tolkien hadn't been telling a lie. The skull of the so called "hobbit" that had been discovered in Indonesia in 2003 has been classified by numerous experts, like Karen Baab, Ph.D., a researcher of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University in New York as not human. The researchers can tell because the skull isn't quite like an ordinary human skull, or at least, not a healthy one. They believe that the hominid had some sort of disease that caused his brain and his skull to not grow as a normal human's should, but for now, we're all assuming that this skull, didn't belong to a human. This means that we might've shared this Earth with other hominids, which also means that there could possibly be hundreds of other cryptids out there that we just haven't found yet.

Cryptozoology toys are in!

The Christmas season is over, but that doesn't mean you can't keep giving! The newest cryptozoology toy set is just what you need to make a little cryptozoologist out of your son or daughter. The set includes figures of Mothman, Bigfoot, The Loch Ness Monster, El Chupacabra, and the Jersey Devil. Such sites as Entertainment Earth are offering pre-ordering opportunities for when the toys come out in February. Since the figurines haven't come out yet, now's the best time to buy em' up, so act now!

Portland, Maine's International Museum

On August 15, 2003, Loren Coleman compiled some of his Paranormal finds and put them all into one building in Portland, Maine and called it The International Cryptozoology Museum. The museum includes many toys and knick-knacks from all over the place as well as an eight-foot tall Bigfoot statue. Coleman also 100 Yeti, Bigfoot, Yowie, and other footcasts, some hoaxes... and some not. He also managed to get props and figures from TV shows and movies such as 'Mothman Prophecies' Pleasant Point police costume and PT Barnum's three-foot tall Fiji Mermaid, as well as the Freaky Links' 22' wide Thunderbird.

Bigfoot Returns

In June, a 30 inch statue of Bigfoot was stolen from the Niki's Quick Six off Route 56 in Spring Church, Pa., about 20 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Nicole Hosak, owner of the convenience store, said that the most depressing part of the whole affair was that the Bigfoot statue was the thing that everybody loved to look at, young and old. Nicole had received this statue as a Christmas present from her husband. Last week, the man behind the theft was caught and she got her Mini-Sasquatch back... well, at least another one. A man named Craig Woolheater had read the story on a site and took pity. He called Nicole and promised that if it wasn't returned, he would get her a new Bigfoot statue. Police caught and charged Joshua E. Duncan, 32, of Ford City with the theft and tried to get him to return it but to no avail.
Upon learning this, Woolheater kept to his word. He called the manufacturer, Design Toscano, which donated a replacement. . Woolheater and an official from the Bigfoot Society drove two hours with the replacement Bigfoot to the Niki's Quick Six. Even though she knew he was coming, it was still a huge shock to see Woolheater walk in with a Bigfoot statue.
This is a gerat story with a happy ending. But the whole thing is kind of like the real thing. The search for Bigfoot, I mean. He comes, and he goes, and he comes back again. The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Seriously.

As all of the Bigfoot fans of the U.S.A know, the Bigfoot carcass found in a cooler in Georgia was a hoax. When some Bigfoot searchers found a carcass of the man-ape, they put it in a cooler and sold it for an unknown amount of money.




The Bigfoot searchers who created the hoax got our hopes up, but who says we can't laugh about it a little? As the cartoon above shows us, we should laugh and joke about the mistakes that people make and that we shouldn't dwell on what happened in the past because the future is firmly ahead of us.