Oddities Week: Human Chimeras?

Animal/man hybrid reports: What kind of conclusions can we make about such things if they truly exist? Well, knowing that humans and animals cannot mate and create offspring, there's only one option - DNA manipulation.

Goat Man:  (listverse) The Maryland goatman has been seen in Prince Georges County, Maryland, USA, since the 1970s. It is reported as having the lower body of a goat and the upper body of a man. He also has the horns of a goat. He’s about 7 feet tall and 300 pounds. The goatman was first sighted by a couple of lovers who had been making out in their car. The goatman had an ax in his hand, while staring at the couple. He then ran into the woods. A woman reported that she had seen the creature in her backyard while her dog was barking urgently. She was too scared to go outside and found that her dog had had it’s head chopped off, when she went outside the next morning.

Lizard Man:  (Wikipedia)  The Lizard Man is described as being 7 feet (2 m) tall, bipedal, and well built, covered in dark hair with scaly lizard like skin on hands, feet and face. It is said to have three toes on each foot and three fingers on each hand which end in a circular pad on them that stick to walls. The creature has an incredible degree of strength, more than capable of ripping into a car. It might have a tail.

Dog Man: (Wikipedia) The first known sighting of the Michigan Dogman occurred in 1887 in Wexford County, when two lumberjacks saw a creature whom they described as having a man's body and a dog's head. In 1938 in Paris, Michigan, Robert Fortney was attacked by five wild dogs and said that one of the five walked on two legs. Reports of similar creatures also came from Allegan County in the 1950s, and in Manistee and Cross Village in 1967. Linda S. Godfrey, in her book The Beast of Bray Road, compares the Manistee sightings to a similar creature sighted in Wisconsin known as the Beast of Bray Road.

Ape Man:  (Wikipedia) Bigfoot, also known as sasquatch, is the name given to an ape-like creature that some people believe inhabits forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid.

Moth Man:  (Wikipedia) On Nov. 15, 1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallette told police they saw a large white creature whose eyes "glowed red" when the car headlights picked it up. They described it as a "flying man with ten foot wings" following their car while they were driving in an area of town known as 'the TNT area', the site of a former World War II munitions plant.

Well, what do you make of it? Does man tend to project his own upright bipedal tendencies upon other creatures? Do we wonder to ourselves - what if??? Or, is there something truly unexplained and sinister going on like DNA testing?

Oddities Week: Radiation Birth Defects

Near Fukishima Nuclear Plant in Japan they found mutations in butterflies. I know, I know, perhaps the earlier Godzilla movies were predicting Mothra before their time -

The Chernobyl disaster gave us lots of examples of how radiation can create aberrations. This makes me wonder at times if high radiation on earth actually created our form of life from something else and we are

mutants? 

Let us not forget what radiation does to humans - such a tragedy -

 

Oddities Week: Sex and the Single Ghost Hunter

It's oddities week and Sex and the Single Ghost Hunter Friday -
So, let's talk about oddities.

I met a man who was handsome, had a steady job, in great shape, real nice. But, he was also a kind of a bland guy with no interests, hobbies, not really sure what he was. He had no quirks of personality. He had no accent. He had few facial expressions. He wasn't into horror, paranormal, going to carnivals, stargazing, collecting movie memorabilia, or any other oddities that would make him, well, interesting or even memorable.

 
A man who can wear a tatt or a hat - 

 
Oddities are what make someone a complete character. Any author knows that their characters must have little quirks to make them seem real. A guy who likes to see every episode of MST3000 and gets excited to do bumper cars is quirky. Another man who can repeat verses of Poe and likes to beachcomb with a metal detector is delightful.

Oddities. They make someone more human.. It's the things we become obsessed about or excited about that make us a-dorkable beings. I like a man who has lots of interests and hobbies or quirks and geek qualities. I'm never quite sure what to do with someone with no dreams, no escapes, no focus, no passion.

It goes without saying, but the more interesting a guy's mind, the more handsome he is to the female. In fact, it's the quirks and oddities that make him seem human and almost child-like or vulnerable and accessible, curious and excited about life. That energy is addictive.

The single best test for a man who is quirky enough? If he can play "what if?" and he comes up with exceptionally creative responses.

Chiller Channel

"Beneath" When a group of young friends commemorating their high school graduation take a trip to the remote Black Lake, their celebration turns into a nightmare with the sudden appearance of a bloodthirsty, underwater predator. Stuck in a leaking boat with no oars, the teens face the ultimate tests of friendship and sacrifice during a terror-stricken fight for survival. Beneath is written by Tony Daniel and Brian D. Smith, and directed by horror icon Larry Fessenden (The Last Winter, Habit). Produced by Fessenden and Peter Phok for Glass Eye Pix (Stake Land, The Innkeepers, I Sell The Dead).
**This movie was just shown at the Stanley Film Festival and will be on Chiller in the upcoming future.**

And, Friday, May 31st - NEW YORK – May 22, 2013 – On Friday, May 31 @ 9pm, Chiller presents the debut of its first-ever anthology film, Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear. The film comprises five unique – and hair-raising – takes on the human senses, each the vision of select up-and-coming writer/directors (including 20-year-old phenom Emily Hagins, who recently debuted her newest feature, Grow Up Tony Phillips, at SXSW 2013): Smell: Nick Everhart (2012 Doomsday) See: Miko Hughes (Directorial Debut; Actor: Pet Semetary, New Nightmare, Steve Niles’ Remains) Touch: Emily Hagins (Grow Up, Tony Phillips; My Sucky Teen Romance) Taste: Eric England (Madison County, Roadside) Listen: Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton (YellowBrickRoad) 5 Senses of Fear is produced by Andrew Gernhard, Zach O’Brien and Colin Theys for Synthetic Cinema International.

Oddities Week: Consanguinity and Inbreeding

We call it "inbreeding" and physicians often refer to children with defects by asking if the parents have consanguinity - or are closely related.

A table shows relationships and the rate at which their offspring might be given similar genes that create the defects -
Typical inbreeding coefficient percentages are as follows, assuming no previous inbreeding between any parents:

• Father/daughter, mother/son or brother/sister → 25% (¹⁄₄)
• Grandfather/granddaughter or grandmother/grandson → 12.5% (¹⁄₈)
• Half-brother/half-sister → 12.5% (¹⁄₈)
• Uncle/niece or aunt/nephew → 12.5% (¹⁄₈)
• Great-grandfather/great-granddaughter or great-grandmother/great-grandson → 6.25% (¹⁄₁₆)
• Half-uncle/niece or half-aunt/nephew → 6.25% (¹⁄₁₆)
• First cousins → 6.25% (¹⁄₁₆)
• First cousins once removed or half-first cousins → 3.125% (¹⁄₃₂)
• Second cousins or first cousins twice removed → 1.56% (¹⁄₆₄)
• Second cousins once removed or half-second cousins → 0.78% (¹⁄₁₂₈)
• Third cousins or second cousins twice removed → 0.39% (¹⁄₂₅₆)
• Third cousins once removed or half-third cousins → 0.20% (¹⁄₅₁₂)

What we look for in our breeding population is diversity and if two parents are so closely related that they carry the same gene for disease, there is a guarantee the child will have this difficulty. There is increased risk of birth defects, , facial defects, mental difficulties, weak immune systems, as well. Certainly, this doesn't even cover the social implications of dipping into one's family pool to breed. That's a whole different can of worms.

Famous folks who married their cousins:  HG Wells, Thomas Jefferson, Johan Sebastian Bach, Franklin Roosevelt, Jesse James, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin (ironically), Edgar Allen Poe, Jerry Lee Lewis, Rudy Guliani.  Considering the millions and even billions of choices on the earth, it seems to me that someone marrying their cousin is just freaking lazy.

Now, let's move on to the horror -