Natural History Museum bets on Loch Ness monster
The Loch Ness monster will go on display at London's Natural History Museum if it is caught under a deal negotiated with bookmakers William Hill. The museum has secured the rights to showcase Nessie's remains should it be captured, in exchange for verifying her existence on behalf of the bookmakers. Under the deal, formalised in 1987 and revealed in archive documents released by the museum, William Hill pays the museum an annual fee on return for the guarantee its experts will provide "positive identification" of the elusive creature. The agreement, which has netted the museum at least £22,000, also covers the Yeti...
Snake with foot found in China
A snake with a single clawed foot has been discovered in China, according to reports. Dean Qiongxiu, 66, said she discovered the reptile clinging to the wall of her bedroom with its talons in the middle of the night. "I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound. I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw," said Mrs Duan of Suining, southwest China...
Full screen of KY bigfoot/crow
Blogsquatcher: This is a full screen version of the pic, sent along by Dave in KY, that has so many people going round and round. Is it a crow in flight close to the camera? Is it an ape-like creature some 60 yards in the distance? In my opinion, it's a crow. I can make out a crow in what I see, anyway, and I have a harder time making out features that really jibe with something apelike. But others are pretty passionate that it can't be a crow. The way I see it, either way, it's another grainy shot of something indefinite...
Google 'unexplained phenomenon' linked to H. G. Wells by new doodle
Google is now sporting the second doodle in the "unexplained phenomenon" series and, thanks to the few clues it has provided, the mystery seems to be solved. This second doodle depicts several crop circles spelling out the company's name, but missing the 'l.' The doodle leads to a search for crop circles, but a tweet sent out by the company seems to confirm one of the earlier theories, which claimed that the series was related to the popular science-fiction author Herbert George Wells' birthday coming next Monday...
Woman tells police she burned down her house because it was haunted
A woman who watched her house burn from a few hundred feet away told police she set it afire "because she was sick of living there, and it was haunted," Stark County Jail records said. Kristine M. Hambuechen, 41, of 19 Penberthy Pl. NE, was arrested at Eighth Street and Lincoln Way St. E at 5:37 p.m. Monday and charged with aggravated arson. She also goes by the last name of Pritchett, according to Massillon police reports. Her home was destroyed...
The mysterious Blood Falls
One of the most amazing sights in Antarctica, the Blood Falls have been a mystery ever since they were discovered, in 1911. A bloody column of water coming out of a glacier isn't what you'd expect to see in the frozen land of Antarctica, but if you visit Taylor Glacier, that's exactly what you're going to find. At first, scientists thought they were dealing with some sorts of red algae, but further research proved the bloody color was caused by something spectacular...
An Auckland ghost story
A property manager got a fright when a ghostly figure turned up in a photo she had taken. Brigid Curran used her cellphone to take some pictures of a rural Helensville property she oversees, and it was not until she returned to her office that Brigid saw what appeared to be the figure of a woman standing in the background by the fence...
Book Buzz: Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
The biggest release this week is no doubt Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, the sequel to the year's surprise best-seller, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. This time the Jane Austen novel of classical literature (re: the crap you were forced to read in High School for no good reason) is combined with sea monster hysterics to create another sure-fire hit...
Bible-Era mystery vessel found -- code stumps experts
It didn't look like much at first, just a broken, mud-caked stone mug. But when archaeologists in Jerusalem cleaned the 2,000-year-old vessel, they discovered ten lines of mysterious script. "These were common stone mugs that appear in all Jewish households" of the time, said lead excavator Shimon Gibson of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte...
