Think Tank: Loch Ness Monster



I haven’t done a Think Tank post in a while, so I thought I’d put a new subject out there and get your thoughts on it.

Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave somewhere, you’re probably heard of the Loch Ness Monster. A serpent-like/dinosaur-like creature apparently sighted in the Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands since as early as 1933. Fleeting glimpses have been seen since that time and several pictures (such as the one above) that became quite famous. This photo above, however, was later found to be a fraud by one of the men responsible for fashioning it out of a toy submarine.

From these sightings, an entire industry along the loch has been born; boats have been launched with expeditions and sonar. Although no definitive evidence has been uncovered of the creature’s existence, most people dispute the possibility of Loch Ness, given the lack of food supply and the amount of the creatures necessary for breeding, as well as having not been found on sonar sweeps.

I admit to being half Scottish and loving a romantic story, but even I balk at this tall tale. Bigfoot might be able to hide out in vast amounts of wilderness in the Northwest of America, but even this loch (which is quite large) is a limited area for creatures of this size to exist without regular detection and without a food supply.

On this think tank, my conclusion—doesn’t exist.

I hope ya'all respond to this Think Tank. My readers are so brilliant, that I like to hear your take on these subjects.

Comments

  1. i thought they just disproved the loch ness monster theory recently? that is so funny that you said you could almost smell the ziti. i had it in the oven yesterday baking and decided to work out back at my potting table. it is just below my kitchen windows which happened to be open yesterday because it was cool. i haven't had the windows open for at least a month because of the heat. i lost track of time and i began to notice a very good smell. i was thinking....some one close by must be making something yummy. a bit later i smelled it again and was trying to place the smell but i wasn't sure what someone was cooking. then a bit later i sort of snapped to attention and thought....oh s**t....my baked ziti. it was wafting through the windows! i got it out just in time!! pretty bad when you don't even recognize your own cooking!!!

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  2. Hee hee. I totally get that smell thing. When I have the vent on over the stove (I also adore cooking), I can go out in the garden and I do the same thing "what's someone cooking?" My neighbors generally just burn sh$# on their grills--smells awful all the time. Hey, I think I might have figured out how to save space, put in planter boxes that utilize space vertically more and year-round will have sunshine--huge problem with my yard's layout. I'm thinking of doing raised boxes up against my shed (which also covers the ugly shed) and keeps them facing south. A 2x6 box, a 3x6 box and a 4x6 box, tiered so the skinny box is on top at about 5' high and far back, the next sized box is about 3' off the ground and butts up againt the shed too, and then one on the ground that's 4' deep. I think this will work well because I have a 4x6 area easily there that gets perfect sun, but I want more growing area, so I'm just going vertical. Now, to talk hubby into building it--yikes!

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  3. Sometimes I wonder why Nessie seems to get so much of the publicity. There are so many other lake monsters around the world, and most of them are hardly ever mentioned. Maybe Nessie is just a ghost of something long past.

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  4. Jeff;
    You're right. I grew up in the Chesapeake area and everyone talked about "Chessie." It would be more feasible something like that could slip in and out of the huge bay rather than a land-locked loch (say that three times too fast). But, one thing I know about my Highlander side of the family--they can weave a romantic tale and in such a bleak setting, it seems quite possible. Here in AZ, we have something similar...the Red Camel. Long ago the army corp used camels here in the 1800s, and apparently abandoned the plan and let them go in the desert. People still report seeing them upon occasion and there's a legend about one with a ghost rider. I think the desolate surroundings and something surviving there is a romantic notion, kind of like Nessie. I wouldn't deny the Scot's the money they make off the loch-seekers, but I personally think it's absolutely not possible to exist there.

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  5. isn't there one in lake erie, i think? (so they say)...

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  6. Chessie, Ogopogo, and Champ are a few of the ones I've heard of before that are relatively famous.

    I found a list of lake monsters on Wikipedia and it does list one being in Lake Erie too.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reported_lake_monsters

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  7. I came across a news article today related to this topic:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6091308/Is-the-Loch-Ness-monster-on-Google-Earth.html

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