A GOOD Santa movie?

This week I watched a "Santa" movie, and I didn't hate it! Normally Santa movies annoy me. They annoy me a lot. They always seem to recycle the same jokes, and they are always full of "Holiday Cheese." Not this one. "Rise of the Guardians" is probably the best "Santa" movie. I've ever seen.

Granted, when I first heard about it, I expected an epic fail of lame-ness. In a nutshell, the plot is this:
Jack Frost teams up with Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy and the Sandman, to fight the Boogeyman, who is giving all the children of the world nightmares. That to me sounded like the lamest movie plot ever, and I did not want to see it. At all. Then I started seeing trailers.



I had to admit, it didn't look half bad. My cousin Sasha really wanted to go see it. She recognized it as based on a book series she had seen and said it was really good. After I saw another trailer in the theater, I was finally convinced to go with her. I am really glad I was. The movie is so much better than it sounded.

When I first heard about it I assumed that it was all about Santa, which as you may have guessed was a complete turn off for me. I did not want to watch another Christmas Santa movie. But that assumption was wrong. First off, it's not even a Christmas movie, it just happens to have Santa in it. Also, Santa was only one of four SIDE characters, and the MAIN character was Jack Frost. But even if Santa had been the star, it would have been cool. This was no Jolly elf with a chubby tummy, going Ho-Ho-Ho. This Santa is a massive, muscular Russian. He has Tattooed arms, and he fights with two swords. I'd watch a movie about this guy even without the other characters. None of that was even the best part about him though. Most Santa stories have the elves making all the toys. Not this Santa. This Santa claims that he just lets the elves THINK they are making the toys. They are pretty much little walking, giggling sight gags, like Christmas versions of the minions on Despicable Me. The real toy makers are a massive army of Yeti. My inner Cryptozoologist is quite pleased with this. :)

The other characters are all much "Cooler" than normally portrayed as well.
First up, the Easter Bunny. He's not a fluffy little cottontail bunny. He's a giant Australian Jackrabbit with an attitude.
The Tooth Fairy is not your regular princess/ballerina/fairy in a TuTu either. She seems to be part hummingbird, and she has thousands of much tinier hummingbird-fairies to help her with her job, which turns out to be about more than just collecting teeth.
The Sandman still seems a little on the chubby and cute side of the scale, but his powers make up for it, and he turns out to be very cool in his own way. (Dinosaurs + Manta Rays = Awesome. :) )

Jack Frost has been portrayed in many ways over the years, but this version is the best. He's kind of a rebellious teen/punk type of character in the beginning, despite the fact that he's about 300 years old, but by the end he's become a full on hero. There was actually a lot of depth to his back-story and character development, something you don't normally get out of a "Kids" movie.

The Boogeyman, AKA, Pitch Black, also turns out to be a great Bad Guy. They could have made him out to be a "Silly" sort of villain, but they did not, he ended up being a dangerous and formidable foe, and the film was much better for that.

All in all, I really enjoyed this movie. If you have kids, or just like animated films yourself, I highly recommend this one. :)

Unicorns Really Do Exist!

I had started this post last year, but when my computer crashed a couple months ago, it was forgotten in a drafts folder on an external hard drive. Today on Facebook, a friend posted a cartoon which reminded me of this post, so I went back to finish it.

I had made a similar post on my other blog ages ago, but now that that blog is gone, I decided to revisit the subject, since I can easily relate it to another of my favorite subjects, Cryptozoology.

If you’ll recall, in one of my papers last semester, I explained that Creationists believe that Dinosaurs were the creatures behind all the dragon myths that permeated many ancient cultures. But what about all the other famous mythological animals? Surely they can’t all have been purely make believe. Couldn’t some of them have been based on a living animal?

Second only to the dragon, most people’s favorite mythological beast would be the unicorn. These days, it seems popular to view the unicorn as a wimpy little animal that only little girls like, but I've never really been one to care what's popular. I still think unicorns are awesome. I prefer a little more of a dangerous version though. When I was younger I liked an illustration from the final book in the Chronicles of Narnia series that showed Jewel the unicorn with blood running down his horn. I may have been a slightly disturbed child… :p

Aaanyyywayyy…

Where did the unicorn come from? Was it real? The Bible talks about Unicorns, and it talks about them in passages that do not suggest they are speaking of a fictitious creature. It speaks of them the same as it does a sheep or a horse. So if one believes what the Bible says, then obviously there has to be a real animal behind the name. But what was it? Someone much smarter than me actually took the time to track down an answer, and the video he made pretty much blew me away. It makes so much sense, I don’t know why this didn’t occur to anyone before this guy figured it out!

Answers in Genesis, the ministry behind the Creation Museum, and the upcoming life-sized Noah's Ark in Kentucky, wrote an article about this as well, and they went on to say that in the 18th century there were reports of explorers in Africa, discovering ancient drawings on stone of equine-like animals with one horn. Could the "Mythical" version be real as well? As far as I know, there isn't any documented evidence of these drawings. I think AIG would have referenced them if there were.

I still think it would be cool if there were a real animal that looked like a horse with a giant horn growing out of its forehead, but knowing that the unicorn was (And still is!) a real animal is pretty awesome. :)

By the way, here is the cartoon that reminded me to finish this post. :)
The artist may have been making a joke, but I bet they never guessed how close to the truth they were!

My Introduction To Cryptozoology

As I was writing my blog posts for my papers about cryptozoology, I got to reminiscing about how I first got interested in cryptozoology. My brother reminded me awhile back of a conference we went to as kids, and as I thought about it I realized, my fascination with cryptozoology began at that conference. It could have been a homeschooler’s event, or it could have been a creation science event. It may have been both, but I couldn’t remember. I really couldn’t remember much of anything about that day except the speaker talked about dinosaurs.
The main speaker talked about an expedition to find a dinosaur, from the details I remembered about the dinosaur it was probably the Mokele Mbembe. I couldn’t remember many of the fine details of the story he told, but I did remember he claimed they found a live dinosaur in an African swamp. A long necked dinosaur, like an Apatosaurus. Something had happened earlier that day and they did not have their video equipment, or it had been ruined, again, I couldn’t remember, but I thought the guy said that the only thing they had working was an audio recorder, which they used to capture the sounds the creature made. He played it for us and said they had run it through every database of animal sounds they could and no computer could identify it. He seemed sincere, and I would love it if it was true, but I’d never heard this story since then. I’ve tried to keep up to date with dinosaur-related Creation science, and cryptozoology, and in neither field had I found a similar story, so I really couldn’t say one way or the other.
After I typed out that memory, I stopped writing to do an internet search. I really wanted to find something, ANYTHING about that guy that matched my memory and that would help me remember the story better. My search turned up almost nothing. Except for ONE single post on an internet forum with details that matched my memory.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread343548/pg1
I’ll copy the forum post here in case the link goes dead sometime in the future. I’m not going to bother editing out all the spelling errors since I didn’t write this, and there aren’t that many of them. Most likely they won’t bother you as much as they bother me. :)

“Gather 'round While I tell you of an account I once heard from the man himself, who had investigated the jungles of Africa and FOUND a living breathing dinosaur. This professor took his story and his piece of evidence around the country giving seminars, and I was priveleged enough to go to one when I was a kid. I have not been able to find him, his name, or his story since, but I KNOW that Behemoth is a well known crypto to this day, and that a supposed Japanese photographer has a photograph. The Behemoth resides in a lake in the Congo (I believe) and the locals refer to this Dinosaur as Li'kele-bembe. I will dig up more info on this cryptid if I can.
First to begin the story: a familiar question opted by another thread:
Could man live with dinosaur? YES. And probably HAS and probably IS CURRENTLY living with dinosaurs on this planet. They are rare specimens but the accounts are there.
We see these creatures and we call them sea monsters, or we hear about them from native lore, (the thunderbird, the behemoth). Certain species did survive extinction of the Dinosaurs, Alligators, Turtles... we know this.
But according to the man I heard, there are probably rare specimens that have been alive, and may still be alive.
I once went to a conference of a man who went to see the African Pygmies about their local monster. It was 'Behemoth' - it was a giant dinosaur. When showed a picture of a Brontosaurus (now a Bracchiosaurus (sp?) they said that was Behemoth. In fact, they were so certain that the Bracchiosaurus was their Behemoth that they demanded to know how the western people knew of it...
So they claimed a massive Dinosaur was living in their jungle. They would hear it at night time and it lived in a particular lake that was forbidden to them for a whole generation.
Well, this guy and a small crew of locals and one of his friends went in to the jungle. They approached the lake where the monster was. The locals would go no further. So he and his friend set up camp. They boated out onto the lake and let the water still.
After fifteen minutes, a massive head rose out of the water and looked at them. It was a Dinosaur. They fumbled for their cameras while shouting in excitement and the thing slowly submerged. They paddled back to shore as fast as they can - about to have a heartattack. The camera had no footage except the shaky water after the Behemoth submerged. They were devastated, but hoped to see it again.
They didn't see the thing for another full day. The conditions were miserable (mosquitos, humidity and heat). Basically, they were risking sickness and predators in an area far from help. They knew they couldn't stay long.
They were spending their last night in the area, when they awoke in the middle of the night. The Behemoth was crashing through the forest nearby and bellowing. The man grabbed his audio recorder and pressed record.
He played for us that recording. Whatever the creature was, it was enormous. After every bellow, you could hear a 'clack'. You could hear trees creaking under stress, then cracking and slamming on the ground. You could hear the steps of the Behemoth, it sounded like massive boulders being dropped onto the ground from an inch up. The sounds of this thing bellowing totally washed out all the background noise of the jungle, (which at night, is VERY noisy). The Behemoth walked about like this for a full 3 minutes before 'disappearing' (possibly entering the lake.)
The man took the audio tape back to America and it was examined by several different colleges and professionals: IT WAS AUTHENTIC. No editing was done to the tape, no tampering could be found, and no animal or possible hoax could explain the frequencies present within the Behemoths recording... This was no man made tape, this was not an animal familiar to modern science. And the 'clacking' which followed every bellowing roar was determined to be the sound of the Behemoths massive jaws closing.
This was and is the only modern account I know of where a person saw a dinosaur and had evidence. I have not seen this man or heard of him sense... but the lecture was amazing and apparently he went all around the country sharing this story. : PEOPLE SIMPLY DID NOT BELIEVE HIM. Even AFTER having heard the tape.
The idea that a gigantic Dinosaur was actually alive in the Jungles of Africa seems almost too fanciful and too perfect a setup for a Hollywood movie. But my friends on ATS, I do believe it was reality.
This man had everything to lose and nothing to gain from sharing this groundbreaking experience, and I am afraid he both gained nothing and lost everything for sharing it. In any event, I wanted to share it with you. I wish with all my heart that recording had made its way to the internet, but if it did, it gained no notoriety and is impossible to find. I have also failed to ever recall the mans exact name or find mention of him. But his story is still amazing to me. And I will never forget hearing that tape.

As I read this post my memories of the man’s presentation came flooding back. This is the exact story I heard as a kid. Maybe whoever wrote this was at the same place I was? He never mentions it as being a creation thing, so maybe I was remembering details that weren’t true. I think I went to more than one creation and/or educational things as a kid, so maybe I am mixing memories and this had nothing to do with that. Either way, I know the whole thing was about dinosaurs, and this event was what got me interested in the fact that dinosaurs could possibly still be alive, and eventually in cryptozoology as a whole.
Maybe this is my inner paranoia kicking in, but the fact that I have never again heard of this guy, and the fact that the person who wrote on that forum was not able to discover anything about him, or the recording, just strikes me as odd. Maybe in a conspiracy theory way… I’m not saying the government shut him up or had him killed or anything, but doesn’t anyone find it weird that no one knows who he is? Maybe I’m way off, and he is famous, and I just don’t know it. If anyone does know, please tell me! I’d love to know more about him and what he’s been doing since I saw his presentation as a kid.

Legendary Creatures Around the World

I have been working Extremely hard these last two weeks getting everything completed for all my classes. Last week I finished an almost 6 page report on Legendary Creatures for my Geography class. I just checked on my grade and aside from a couple “Grammatical Errors” which he did not point out, I aced it. Generally the teachers in the online classes do not write much for reviews, but my teacher did have a rather complimentary, if brief bit of praise to offer.

So far one of my favorite papers since I've been teaching this class (3 years now). I enjoyed the subject matter immensely.

I now have a final exam to complete, and then I will be completely finished with this class, and as this test is the last thing I need to complete for any class, I will soon be done with all of this semester’s work. Woo Hoo!
I know some of you have enjoyed reading my other things about cryptozoology, so I will share my paper here for those of you who would like to read it. :)

Legendary Creatures Around the World

By Jonathan North

The deep forests in the North America, the deserts of the Australian outback, the icy depths of a Loch in Scotland, the snowy peaks of the Himalayan Mountains in Asia, and the dense jungles of the African rainforests; all these are places today that have significant legends attached to them, legends of fantastic creatures. Creatures laughed off by most as just stories or superstition. But what if these stories are more than just stories? What if these creatures all really exist?
Today there are creatures in zoos all over the world that were once laughed at as creatures of myth and legend. Kangaroos, pandas, and many other creatures at one time were disregarded as myths by the scientific community until given absolute proof. In fact, one of my favorite animals was considered a myth until the late 18^th century when Europeans were first introduced to a living giraffe. They had heard of giraffes from ancient Greek and Roman writings, but having never seen such a beast for themselves, it was thought to be an animal that the ancients had invented. Similarly, the giraffe’s only known relative, the okapi, was also thought to be a myth until its official discovery in the late 1800’s by Sir Harry Johnston. In 1903 the first live Okapi was captured, and today you can find them in zoos all over the world.
When explorers brought the remains of a platypus to England from Australia they were accused of creating a fake animal by piecing together parts from the bodies of real animals. It was not until sometime later when scientist saw for themselves living, breathing specimens, that they accepted that the platypus was not a beaver with a duck’s bill taxidermied to its face.
Some scientists think there is a definite possibility that there is truth behind our modern day myths, and have dedicated their lives to trying to prove them as truth. These scientists, working in the relatively small, and often maligned scientific field of Cryptozoology, the study of unknown animals, ask a very simple question. Is it possible that mythological creatures have some basis in reality? While it is unlikely that all these animals are exactly as the stories depict them, I fully believe that for every legend there is, or was, a real, live creature behind it.
All over the world, and throughout the ages of time, every culture has stories of fantastic beasts that great warriors fought and killed. When the great beasts are called a bear or a lion, it is generally accepted that such a story truly happened. The hero’s deeds may be exaggerated for dramatic effect, but generally such stories are thought to have a grain of truth to them. But what about the stories with a creature we don’t recognize?
Many countries and many cultures all over the world had legends of monstrous and unbelievable beasts. Native Americans told of massive birds with such huge wingspans they created thunder as they flew. Sailors have long told stories of encounters with strange creatures, such as mermaids, and fearfully large creatures, from the massive Kraken to enormous sea serpents that would attack ships and drag them to the ocean floors never to be seen again. And many, many cultures have legends of gigantic reptiles called dragons. But these were all just stories, right? Maybe, but legends had to start somewhere.
What if these legends were stories that these cultures used to explain real life animals that they did not understand? It is generally accepted now, that the legend of the Kraken might have been based on encounters with giant squid, an animal undocumented by science until recent years. Similarly the stories of mermaids, may have come from sailors, dehydrated and not able to see straight, who saw sunbathing seals, or swimming manatees. Why is it so different to believe that a story of a dragon was based on a real animal?
While this explanation is usually laughed off by mainstream scientists, Creation scientists have hypothesized that the dragon legends of cultures all around the world, from ancient Babylon, to ancient China, to even more recent examples like the medieval European legend of St. George and the Dragon, were based on encounters with dinosaurs.
Since Creationists see fossils as evidence of a world-wide flood in the days of Noah, they see no problems in believing that dinosaurs were alive at the time of man. They obviously would not have been called dinosaurs, a name coined only in 1840 by Sir Richard Owen, but could they have been known by the name dragon, or other names throughout history, depending on the culture who tells the tale? Since most Dragon legends end with the dragon slain by the valiant hero, perhaps the reason for the dinosaur’s extinction was the same reason that so many species are in danger of going extinct today; us. Humanity is generally thought to be the cause of the Mammoth’s extinction. Humanity caused the Dodo’s extinction. Humanity wiped out the Passenger Pigeon, the Moa, and the Tasmanian Tiger. If the dinosaurs did not go extinct millions of years ago, is it such a stretch to believe that we caused their extinction?
Some people, not just creationists, even believe that some dinosaurs may still be alive, as there are stories all around the world to this day of creatures that fit the descriptions of dinosaurs. There are stories of multiple creatures in Africa, the most famous of which, the Mokele Mbembe, fit the description of a living dinosaur. Australia also has stories, as do the Native Americans here in our own country. Ancient artwork occasionally depicts creatures that do not resemble any known creature today, and some of them look vaguely like dinosaurs.
But dinosaurs are not the only creatures around which legends might be based. All over North and South America, there are legends of giant hairy ape men. To the natives in Canada, these creatures were known as Sasquatch. To Americans, who more often use the name in derision, the creature is known as Bigfoot. In South America they tell tales of the Mono Grande, “Big Monkey”, a giant tailless ape.
Without solid proof, people who claim to have seen such creatures are laughed at, but to scoff at such stories has often left the scoffers with egg on their faces. Until about 200 years ago the scientific community laughed at African natives who claimed that giant, hairy, wild men lived in the jungles of Africa. Their laughter turned to astonishment when a French explorer brought back the body of a gorilla. Is it so difficult to believe that similar creatures could exist on one or both of the Americas?
Similar to these stories is the Abominable Snowman in Asia, or as the native people refer to him, the Yeti. A wild man said to live in the Himalayas. Is it possible that this “wild man” is a type of ape? In Australia, they tell of a creature called Yowie, and their descriptions are also of a hairy ape man. To me, so many similar stories all over the world, can’t be laughed off as coincidences.
Another famous beast, beloved by tourists and derided by scientists, is the Loch Ness Monster a giant beast said to live in the Loch Ness in Scotland. Most accounts told of the creature describe it as what looks to be an extinct marine reptile, similar to a plesiosaur. Scientists say that there is no way it can exist there, but researchers have found evidence of underwater caverns that may contain air, and channels that could lead to the ocean. Who’s to say that “Nessie” is just one creature? Isn’t it far more likely that what people have seen throughout history are just different members of the same species? Perhaps the Loch is just a stop on their migratory rout?
The Loch Ness is not the only body of water said to contain a monster, in fact there are stories of lake monsters all over the world. However, one lake, Lake Champlain, a lake between New York and Vermont, has been the only place other than Loch Ness for someone to provide somewhat credible evidence for the existence of such a creature. In July of 1977 a woman captured an image of the beast that is still debated today. The image shows what appears to be a plesiosaur, even clearer than the ones taken of Nessie. This was in the days long before Photoshop, so the chances that this woman was able to fake this photograph by herself are quite slim.
We humans love stories. We love hearing tales of the unknown, and stories of creatures that couldn’t possibly exist. But every story had to be inspired by something. I think it is completely within the realm of possibility that all these stories, all over the world, told by cultures throughout history, had some basis in truth. After all, The Gorilla, the Panda, and the Giraffe were once stories. Perhaps someday, our descendants will stroll through the zoo and laugh at us because we once thought that Sasquatch and Nessie were figments of someone’s overactive imagination.

2 Countries 8 Facts

I am getting down to the final stretch! Next week is finals week and I have been studying harder than ever this week trying to get ready. Today I never left my room, except for, you know, eating and stuff… I’m still in my pajamas from last night, and it is currently… Um… Very, very late at night… Again… :p But it was all worth it because I completely finished a huge research paper and an assignment for Geography where we were to find 4 facts each about two different countries. (Though because I am somewhat of a nerd, I beefed up all the facts, so they each contain a bunch of sub-facts. Maybe I’ll get bonus points! :D ) The countries could be anywhere in South America, Europe, Asia, or North Africa. Since I know you are all dying for some interesting Geographical trivia, ;) I decided to share my findings with all of you. Aren’t you excited? Hooray for knowledge! :D

For my first country I chose Latvia, as I have friends whose family immigrated from Latvia, one of whom has now returned, having married a Latvian, and they are currently raising a family there. The second country I chose purely because I wanted to incorporate some aspect of Cryptozoology into my report. I chose Nepal, because it is one of the two counties in which the Himalayas are located. The Himalayas being the home of the Yeti, or Abominable Snowman. :p

You guys are all lucky because, as this is my blog, I decided that I would illustrate my report for you. So much more interesting than the one my teacher has to grade! :D

Latvia

The name Latvia is spelled Latvija in the Latvian language and this comes from the ancient Latgallians, or Letts, one of four tribes, who formed the ethnic core of today’s Latvian people. In written sources, they are first mentioned in the 11th century, but not much is known of the origins of these tribes.

One of the staples of the Latvian diet is Rupjmaize, a dark bread made from rye.

Using rye bread for something other than sandwiches would be pretty unheard of here in the U.S., but in Latvia, it is used to make Rupjmaizes kartojums, a traditional Latvian dessert. Layered like a trifle, this dessert uses jam or preserves, along with a rye bread crumb mixture and whipped cream.

Often it is garnished with more bread crumbs and fresh fruit to give it an attractive appearance.

Latvia's national bird is the White Wagtail, so named for the way its tail moves as it runs along the ground.

No one knows why the wagtail is constantly wagging its tail, but reasons for it have been hypothesized, from a submissive signal to other wagtails, to a sign of vigilance that deters predators.

Although the origins of the Christmas tree are disputed by historians, one of the first documented uses in history is from Latvia. In 1510 an evergreen was erected for their celebration in the town hall square in Riga, Latvia.

The grandest building on the square, the House of Blackheads has a domed plaque in front of it, marking the location of this first celebration.

 

Nepal

Early sources refer to the country as Nepala, and the name Nepal is believed to come from the word "Nepa" referring to the Newar Kingdom, which is the present day Kathmandu Valley. Local legends say that a Hindu sage named "Ne" came to the valley in prehistoric times and that the word "Nepal" means, "The country looked after by Ne".

Nepal contains some of the highest mountain peaks on earth. One of these mountains is Mount Everest, which is the highest mountain in the entire world.

Although the height is disputed and Nepal is planning a new survey, the current accepted height of the mountain is 29,029 ft. The mountain is the home of what may be the highest non-microscopic life form on earth, the Euophrys omnisuperstes, a tiny jumping spider.

It is thought that the spider may feed on small frozen insects blown there on the wind.

Nepal's flag is the only national flag in the world that is not rectangular in shape.

The red in the flag stands for courage, and is the color of the rhododendron, the national flower of Nepal, and the flag's blue border signifies peace. The curved moon on the flag is a symbol of the calm nature of the Nepalese people, while the sun represents the aggressiveness of the Nepalese warriors.

Nepal is one of two countries said to be the home of one of the most famous legendary monsters of today, known as the Yeti, or, more popularly, the Abominable Snowman.

The Yeti is said to live in the Himalayas, a mountain region spanning both Nepal and Tibet. The name Yeti comes from a Tibetan word for bear, as some believe that the Yeti is a Man-Bear. Most descriptions given of this creature make it out to be a giant ape, similar to the Bigfoot or Sasquatch of North America.

So, there you have it. All you never knew you needed to know about Latvia and Nepal. :)

Are Dinosaurs Still Alive?

As my friends, and long time readers of my blog know, I am big into cryptozoology. This semester in my online geography class, we were to write a five page report, and a post for a discussion forum, on any topic we chose, as long as it tied into geography. I managed to tie cryptozoology into geography. It wasn’t that hard to do. :)

For the five page paper I am going to do cryptozoology as a whole, mainly focusing on legendary creatures, Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, etc, but for the discussion post I decided to write about my favorite area of cryptozoology, the fact that dinosaurs could still exist. Some people’s discussions have been a couple measly little paragraphs. Basically they wrote down a few things and called it good. For mine, I ended up writing what amounted to a three page paper. So far the response to it has been of great excitement. As I figured, none of my classmates had any idea that there is still a chance that some dinosaurs have survived their own extinction, and I quite possibly blew all of their minds wide open. :) Today, I will share that paper with all of you, and if you didn’t know that there may still be dinosaurs in the world, prepare to have you own mind blown. (Unless you are a closed minded doubter who scoffs at anything science can’t explain. If so, I pity you. :) )

 

Are Dinosaurs Still Alive?

Jonathan North

Are dinosaurs still alive? If you were to ask the average Joe on the street you would of course get the only sensible answer, “No, of course not.” But for a few people who have dedicated their lives to the discovery of unknown animals, a relatively small scientific field called cryptozoology, you would get a very different answer.

“But dinosaurs died out millions of years ago,” skeptics argue. “The only proof they ever even existed is the fossils, right? They can’t possibly be alive today. Science says so!” As a creationist, I would disagree with the extinction date, but there are other creationists who would still use a similar argument. The only place anyone sees dinosaurs is in the fossil record, so the natural assumption is that they are all extinct. But just because something is accepted as truth by the scientific community does not always mean it is true. Science is constantly being rewritten as new evidences are discovered.

Have you ever heard of a Coelacanth? Said to have been extinct for 65 million years, coelacanth fossils were used as direct proof of evolution, due to the fact that they had fins that looked like they could have been legs. In 1938 the scientific community was turned upside down by the discovery of living coelacanths. Science books had to be rewritten because one of the main proofs of evolution was shown to be alive and well, and it was completely a fish, not a fish/amphibian hybrid as had been previously speculated. If scientists had missed seeing this fish for thousands of years, isn’t it possible that there could be other animals known only through the fossil records still alive today?

“Wait a minute, you might ask. “This is all very interesting, but isn’t this a geography class? What does any of this have to do with geography?” Well, in this case, geography is the most important factor. To be an unknown animal, that animal needs somewhere to hide.

“Yes,” some would argue, “But oceans are one thing. Land is another. Scientists have explored all over the earth, and haven’t found dinosaurs. How does this help the case for cryptozoologists holding out hope for a live dinosaur?”

While it is true that for the most part all lands have been explored at one time or another, there are some places that it simply isn’t possible to get to with all the scientific equipment necessary to search for dinosaurs. Deep in the African Congo, there are miles and miles of deep jungle so dense that scientists can’t possibly explore it all very thoroughly. Even the native Africans that live around those regions seldom venture in.

“Ok, so there are places we can’t get to, I get that,” one might concede, “but the inability to easily explore, does not equal proof.”

And that would be the end of the argument, except for one thing. As you’ll see in the paragraph above, I wrote “Seldom.” The native Africans may not go that deep into the jungle often, but those that do tell stories of huge monsters that live there. The most famous story they tell is of a creature called Mokele-mbembe. In their language this means “One who stops the flow of rivers.” When asked to draw a picture of this beast, the natives draw what is clearly described as a sauropod dinosaur, a long-necked dinosaur like Apatosaurus, or Brachiosaurus. These natives are not educated, and would have no idea what a dinosaur even was, but the fact that their “Monster” looks so much like what we call a dinosaur, should give one pause.

Mokele-mbembe may be the most famous example of what might be a living dinosaur, but it is far from the only one. The Congo in particular, but all over Africa, is a source of many stories from the native peoples, claiming to have seen monsters.

The Emela-Ntouka, or “Killer of Elephants” is an enormous beast thought to be a ceratopsian, like Triceratops, but with a single huge horn. Some have described it as a giant rhinoceros, but it is said to have a long thrashing tail like a crocodile. It lives in the swamps like Mokele-mbembe and natives say that it hates elephants. The way it uses its horn is what gave it its name.

The Mbielu- Mbielu- Mbielu is yet another massive swamp dweller. This one is thought to be a stegosaurus as its long name means, “The animal with planks growing out of its back.” Natives say that it spends all its time in the water, and algae actually grows all over any exposed skin. It has never been seen out of the water, so they do not know what its legs look like.

The Kongamoto or “Overwhelmer of Boats” is a much smaller creature than those previously mentioned, but is significant because, though technically not a dinosaur, from descriptions given, it would seem that it was a type of pterosaur. It gets its name from the fact that it swoops down at fisherman. Like the others, it would seem that it prefers the swamps. In western Zamibia it has been sighted in a swamp that is believed to be the abode of demons.

Dinosaur sightings are not limited to Africa, though this is where most sightings occur. For years there have been stories of dinosaur like animals all over the world. Even in America people have claimed to see animals they describe as three foot tall T-Rexes, Velociraptors and Pterosaurs.

Australian Aborigines tell of a terrifying creature called the Burrunjor. It walks on two legs and has two small forearms. They say it is about 25 feet long. Does this not sound eerily similar to a theropod dinosaur, such as Tyranosaurus Rex? Even more compelling is that fact that unlike the African cases, these stories do not just come from the native peoples. In the 1950’s, cattle ranchers in Northern Australia, reported that many of their cattle had been killed or half-eaten by a mysterious animal. The ranchers had found giant bipedal tracks and some heard thunderous roars, while others heard it crashing through the jungle at night. A farmer claimed to have seen a Burrunjor from about 250 feet away. In 1961 a tracker gave an account of a huge reptile walking on two legs through a swamp near the Gulf Coast. He said it was about 25 feet tall. In addition, to the Australian sightings, people in New Guinea, Boliva, and South America have reported sightings of similar creatures.

Skeptics would point out that scientists can hardly take the word of an uneducated tribesman at face value, and they would also question the word of an everyday farmer, but again we can go back to the coelacanth. When the coelacanth was discovered by scientists, it was very well known to the native peoples where it was discovered. They were using it as a source of food. There have been many species that western science was unaware of that were just common knowledge to the people in the areas that the animals have been found. The Gorilla, the Panda, and the Duck-Billed Platypus, just to name a few. All species generally disregarded as native lore by scientists until actual proof was produced.

I do not know if dinosaurs still walk the earth today or not, but to disbelieve based solely on the fact that “Everyone knows they’re extinct” to me is just closed minded and foolish. There is so much in our world that we know nothing about. People sometimes just assume that scientists know everything, but that isn’t the case at all. I for one am glad that they don’t. I think that the mystery is all part of the fun! I love to think about what fantastic things might be out there just waiting to be discovered, or in this case RE-discovered!

My First Art in 2011

So today, the weather is really bad. The roads are too slick to drive on, so we had to miss class for today. Which stinks, because at the moment I am typing this, I am supposed to be walking in to my Drawing 2 class to turn in the first big art project we’ve been working on. But since I can’t show my teacher, I’ve decided to show you all instead.
I’ve actually been planning out this post in advance, and I have been photographing my progress at every step.
Our first project was a large picture of a whole bunch of stuff that either describes who we are, or is stuff we like. The first part of the assignment was to make a mind map. Basically we were to write down everything we could think of that we liked, or that described us, and then choose 20 words. This is what it looked like when I was done.

I could have done more, and I was undecided about what 20 words to choose so I pretty much gave up on it and wrote a separate 20 word list of stuff I thought I’d like to use for a picture. The next assignment was to design a picture using those twenty words together to make a cohesive piece of art. I don’t think I used my whole list, and I added some stuff that wasn’t on my original list, as well as took some creative liberties with a few of the words, but I had an idea, and I didn’t want a bunch of random stuff “Floating” in the empty spaces of the picture. Our teacher had shown us some examples of a few of his best students’ work from past classes, and as good as they were, a lot of them just seemed to be random objects floating around one main object. I wanted something more organized. The only problem was I had two words that I wanted to use, but I didn’t know how to incorporate them. Bible, and pizza. Neither of those would fit into this piece of art, but I felt that at least Bible needed to be there, and I really wanted pizza, because, well, I just love pizza. So I decided to hide them. Look at my drawing and see if you can see them. I did not actually draw a bible, or a pizza, but I alluded to them. Hint: Look at the giraffe.

The main thing I wanted the drawing to be about was art and photography. Because that, in a nutshell, is who I am. I also knew that there had to be a giraffe in it. Once I got the idea that the picture would be of a camera focusing on a giraffe, everything else fell into place. I dropped the “Art” aspect because there wasn’t a good way to fit it in, and this was art in itself, so it was kind of a given that I loved art.
One of my categories in the mind map was ocean life. I decided that instead of doing a sky, I’d make it an underwater scene and use a bunch of my favorite sea creatures.
For the background I was just going to do a bunch of my favorite animals, like an okapi, and a horse, but I also really wanted to do a dragon, so I decided that instead of doing real animals, I would do made up ones. They’re even more fun to draw than real animals.
Unlike our Drawing 1 class we will be using color in drawing 2. For the last step he gave us each a set of watercolors, and paintbrushes.

I have never painted with watercolors before, other than when I was a little kid and had no idea how to use them. Our teacher showed us how to use the paint and mix it if we wanted to. He also gave us tips on how to get better results than just straight up painting. I had a lot of fun working on this. Here is the result.

I was mostly happy with how it turned out, but there were some things that needed fixing. Our teacher had said we did not HAVE to use the watercolors, and said we could use anything we wanted, as long as we turned in a full color drawing. So I went to work with my colored pencils, markers, and pens, and played Photoshop-in-real-life, until I got some better results. For the most part it is unchanged, but if you look close you’ll see many minor changes all over, mainly in shade and color, plus I got rid of a few spots where the paint had smudged.

To help you see some of the differences I took some detail shots as well, so I can show you side by side how things changed.
First we have my giraffe. The main thing I wanted to do was add detail, because it was the main focus of my picture. As you all know by now, I love giraffes. Here you can see some subtle color and texture changes, as well as some fixed smudges. If you look back at the main pictures you can see the differences on the neck.

Next up, my Manta Ray. I didn’t change anything on him, but I needed to clean up some smudges around him. When I was looking for reference photos on the internet to use, I searched Ray, not specifying Manta. Google apparently thought I wanted Rachel.

Next is my Pegasus. When I was making my list, I had the words Horse and Fantasy. I decided I would mix the two instead of doing them separate. When fixing the Pegasus I added a bunch of details that had disappeared during painting. Painting something jet black doesn’t allow for details to show through. I finally found a use for the white colored pencil! Notice also the changes in the areas surrounding him. I changed the shade of the bottom of the mountain in the background as well as the dirt in the cliff under the Pegasus. I also added detail to the grass and cleaned up a whole bunch of unsightly black smudges.

Next is my Baby Pterodactyl. Notice the change in texture of the spots behind him. I didn’t do much to him other than fix the wing tips.

I added the baby pterodactyl for three reasons.

1: I love dinosaurs, and even though this isn’t technically a dinosaur, it’s pretty close.

2: I love cryptozoology and wanted something in my drawing to represent that, so I added this because finding living “extinct” animals is one branch of cryptozoology, and there have actually been many reported sightings of living Pterodactyls. Plus I didn’t want to draw in a bigfoot.  

3: I found a picture on the internet of some kind of a baby Pterosaur eating a ladybug and it was so cute I had to use it somehow, so I turned it into a baby Pterodactyl.

Who wants to see the original? It’s so cute!

AAAAAAAAWE! I want one!

Next is the dragon. He didn’t go through quite as many changes. The main thing I needed to do for him was fix his left wing claw. You couldn’t even tell it was a claw any more. I also added red to all his lines, so the details would stand out a little better, and I tried to darken him just a bit. I wanted a dragon in my picture partly because of the theory that dragon legends started with dinosaurs, tying it into the whole cryptozoology thing, plus, I just love dragons.

Next is my seahorse. I was not happy with how the yellow watercolor turned out or how the pencil looked with it, so I got out a yellow marker called Baby Duckling yellow, and a brown pencil, and fixed him right up.

Next is the Phoenix. I am quite proud of the fact that I managed to get it to actually look like fire. I didn’t even use a reference photo for this, so I was really happy with how it turned out. The biggest problem was the horribly smudged beak, but I also added some detail to the edges of the flames.

Next is the dolphins, I originally had just one, but it looked so empty in the space around it, that I decided to do a whole pod instead. When I went to fix a bunch of smudges, I ended up making it worse, so I decided to make every dolphin a different color, and make it look like they were all swimming up from a deeper part of the ocean. This way all the mistakes were hidden and it made the dolphins more interesting to look at.

Last up is my Whales. I was really happy with how they turned out after I redid the color. They were originally going to be humpbacked whales, because the reference picture I liked the best just happened to be a humpbacked whale, but I wasn’t that happy with the result, and I like blue whales better, so I changed them.

The baby originally wasn’t even there. I drew the mother and decided that it wasn’t enough, so I added a baby as kind of a reference to the baby whale from The Pines of Rome sequence in Fantasia 2000. In retrospect the reference would have worked better if I had added the father too. Oh well. I still like them.
Well, that’s all for now. I just looked at the time and it is about the time I would be leaving school, so instead of spending the afternoon in art class, I spent the afternoon blogging about art class.