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Did King Kong inspire the myth of the Loch Ness monster?
They are the 20th Century's most monstrous icons and have sparked fear and fascination from the Highlands to Hollywood.
But now it has been claimed that King Kong gave birth to the myth of the Loch Ness monster.
New research from America's Columbia University suggests the sightings in northern Scotland were triggered by the release of the 1933 classic, which, along with the giant rampaging gorilla, also featured a long-necked, hump-backed lake creature.
Author Daniel Loxton says the first reported sighting of a 'plesiosaur-like dinosaur' in the Loch was made by Londoner George Spicer in August 1933 - when King Kong was playing to packed cinemas in the UK.
Mr Loxton said: "Previous witnesses had reported splashes or humps in the water, but Spicer reported a close-up view of a long-necked creature that could have been lifted right off King Kong's Skull Island.
"Indeed, I believe that is what happened.
His yarn gave rise to many other sightings, making the "plesiosaur" a favourite explanation for Nessie throughout the 20th Century."
The following year, a photograph of the Loch Ness monster caused a global sensation.
The shadowy picture became the definitive image of Nessie until the 1990s, when it was proved it had been created by attaching a cut-out dinosaur head to a toy submarine.
Marine biologist Adrian Shine, who has studied the Loch for more than 40 years, backed Mr Loxton's theory.
He said: "I believe that King Kong was the main influence behind the Jurassic Park hypothesis at Loch Ness. Before Spicer's sighting there were no long-neck reports at all." - NZ Herald
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Open-air courthouse 'human zoo' holding cage
The open-air holding pen dubbed "a human zoo" outside the courthouse is just part and parcel of living in the King Country town of Te Kuiti on New Zealand's North Island. But the sight of it has shocked justice advocates around the country who have described the outside holding area as "barbaric" and "positively Victorian".
Retired defence lawyer Peter Williams QC called the practice 'humiliating' and 'absolutely barbaric'. "How the justice department can justify a holding pen is just unbelievable, it's beyond imagination ... just absolutely wrong," the lawyer of 60 years experience said. "Whoever is responsible for it should be dealt some type of discipline and the thing should be dismantled and the proper remand rooms or accommodation put up to civilised standards."
Wellington human rights lawyer and member of the NZ Council for Civil Liberties Michael Bott said the cage 'almost has an element of theatre about it'. "In many ways the cage on a street sounds like it's barely a step removed from the stocks a couple of hundred years ago which were used to shame people ... it's positively Victorian." Bott said not all the people in the cage were convicted of a crime either which would appear to breach people's privacy. He said it was a clear breach of S23(5) of the Bill of Rights Act which states 'everyone deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the person'.
"Not everyone who is bailed is convicted ... it just seems bizarre." Roger Brooking, who has 15 years experience working in the justice arena, was gobsmacked. "It's totally weird. I have never seen anything like that before. I had no idea there was a human zoo for offenders in Te Kuiti. I think it's disgusting, quite frankly. This is something you would see in a third world country, or something out of the middle ages." Tony Fisher, general manager of district courts, said the Ministry of Justice had received no negative feedback about the "secure entranceway". - Stuff
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Bright Night Light
Johnstown, PA - This is probably useless information but when I was a kid in the 70's and told people what I saw, They said I was dreaming.
There were beings who came into my bedroom and stood on the porch roof outside my bedroom at night. I would cry, please stop! They were about 3 feet tall and my lived near a farm. My Dad told me they were stray cats because of the triangular face. They weren't cats!
I wasn't allowed to watch TV for a long time because my parents thought the television shows were giving me the "bad dreams"!
The closest neighbor was 200 yards away and asked me why my night light was so bright. I only had a little Christmas tree light. She said it was so bright, she was concerned that the house might be on fire but she could tell it wasn't fire. Just a bright light.
I was born in 1970 and we moved out of that house in 1979 and I never saw them again but I know what I remember. I've been trying to tell myself it was dreams for 35 years. I know it wasn't dreams.
Like I said, useless information after 35 years but it feels good to tell somebody who won't say, "You were dreaming." And the neighbor who asked about the super bright light wasn't dreaming either. Thanks, Greg - MUFON CMS
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Report compiles 25 years of UFO sightings in Canada
The truth is out there -- or so one group out of Winnipeg wants us to believe.
A group called Ufology Research has released the results of its 25-year-long study of Canadian UFO reports.
In it, researchers say nearly 15,000 celestial oddities have been spotted since the group began collecting data in 1989.
"Coincidentally, this almost exactly matches the total number of UFO reports collected and analysed by the United States Air Force Project Blue Book during its official run of less than 20 years from 1952 to 1970," said the group in a blog post.
Research co-ordinator Chris Rutkowski says the group's work doesn't provide absolute proof about the existence of extraterrestrials, but raises questions.
"This is simply a phenomenon that's real, that people continue to report,'' Rutkowski said in an interview with The Canadian Press Press after the study was released Friday. "And I believe that science should take a better look at what's going on because the (data) suggests the phenomenon isn't going away.''
The study shows a growing number of unexplained sightings over the years.
The "hot spot" cities with the most sightings were Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Calgary.
The majority of sightings were spotted between 10 p.m. and midnight, and usually in July and August.
About three per cent, or 467 cases, were close encounters, including alleged alien sightings and abductions. - The Weather Network
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