Eighth Wonder

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Pompeii of the East' discovered

2006-03-01T11:52:00.000-06:00

An expedition to the site of the largest volcanic eruption in modern times has uncovered a lost kingdom.

More than 100,000 people died when Mount Tambora erupted on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa in 1815.

Remains of a house with two occupants buried under ash have been unearthed for the first time in a discovery hailed the "Pompeii of the East".

Scientists say bronze bowls, ceramic pots and other recovered artefacts shed light on an old Indonesian culture.

"There's potential that Tambora could be the Pompeii of the East, and it could be of great cultural interest," said Professor Haraldur Sigurdsson, of the University of Rhode Island, US, who has been researching the area for 20 years.

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CNN.com: 'Lost world' found in jungle

2006-02-07T09:17:00.000-06:00

OSLO, Norway (Reuters) -- Scientists say they have found a "Lost World" in an Indonesian mountain jungle, home to dozens of exotic new species of birds, butterflies, frogs and plants.

"It's as close to the Garden of Eden as you're going to find on Earth," said Bruce Beehler, co-leader of the U.S., Indonesian, and Australian expedition to part of the cloud-shrouded Foja mountains in the west of New Guinea.

Indigenous peoples living near the Foja range, which rises to 2,200 meters (7,218 feet), said they did not venture into the trackless area of 3,000 square kilometers (1,200 square miles) -- roughly the size of Luxembourg or the U.S. state of Rhode Island.

The team of 25 scientists rode helicopters to boggy clearings in the pristine zone.

"We just scratched the surface," Beehler told Reuters. "Anyone who goes there will come back with a mystery."

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Research: Donners didn't resort to cannibalism

2006-01-13T09:34:00.000-06:00

From CNN:

RENO, Nevada (AP) -- There's no physical evidence that the family who gave the Donner Party its name had anything to do with the cannibalism the ill-fated pioneers have been associated with for a century and a half, two scientists said Thursday.

Cannibalism has been documented at the Sierra Nevada site where most of the Donner Party's 81 members were trapped during the brutal winter of 1846-47, but 21 people, including all the members of the George and Jacob Donner families, were stuck six miles away because a broken axle had delayed them.

No cooked human bones were found among the thousands of fragments of animal bones at that Alder Creek site, suggesting Donner family members did not resort to cannibalism, the archaeologists said at a conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology in Sacramento, California.

Oldest Known Photo of a Tornado

2006-01-09T09:53:00.000-06:00

From Wikipedia

The New York Times on Ilya Ivanov, cross-breeding apes, and Stalin

2005-12-20T09:55:00.000-06:00

From the article:

In the mid-1920's, the culture wars were dominated - as they are today with "intelligent design" - by the debate between creationism and evolutionary thinking. In 1925, John T. Scopes had been found guilty of teaching that mankind arose from something other than divine creation. But the United States was not the only country passionate about the issue. The young Soviet Union, in its effort to stamp out religion, was determined to prove that men were descended from apes. In 1926, a Soviet scientist named Ilya Ivanov decided the most compelling way to do this would be to breed a humanzee: a human-chimpanzee hybrid.

Kissing Cousins - New York Times

Stalin's half-man, half-ape super-warriors

2005-12-20T09:38:00.000-06:00

From THE SCOTSMAN

By CHRIS STEPHEN AND ALLAN HALL

THE Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the creation of Planet of the Apes-style warriors by crossing humans with apes, according to recently uncovered secret documents.

Moscow archives show that in the mid-1920s Russia's top animal breeding scientist, Ilya Ivanov, was ordered to turn his skills from horse and animal work to the quest for a super-warrior.

According to Moscow newspapers, Stalin told the scientist: "I want a new invincible human being, insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the quality of food they eat."

In 1926 the Politburo in Moscow passed the request to the Academy of Science with the order to build a "living war machine". The order came at a time when the Soviet Union was embarked on a crusade to turn the world upside down, with social engineering seen as a partner to industrialisation: new cities, architecture, and a new egalitarian society were being created.

The Soviet authorities were struggling to rebuild the Red Army after bruising wars.

And there was intense pressure to find a new labour force, particularly one that would not complain, with Russia about to embark on its first Five-Year Plan for fast-track industrialisation.

Mr Ivanov was highly regarded. He had established his reputation under the Tsar when in 1901 he established the world's first centre for the artificial insemination of racehorses.

Mr Ivanov's ideas were music to the ears of Soviet planners and in 1926 he was dispatched to West Africa with $200,000 to conduct his first experiment in impregnating chimpanzees.

Meanwhile, a centre for the experiments was set up in Georgia - Stalin's birthplace - for the apes to be raised.

Mr Ivanov's experiments, unsurprisingly from what we now know, were a total failure. He returned to the Soviet Union, only to see experiments in Georgia to use monkey sperm in human volunteers similarly fail.

A final attempt to persuade a Cuban heiress to lend some of her monkeys for further experiments reached American ears, with the New York Times reporting on the story, and she dropped the idea amid the uproar.

Mr Ivanov was now in disgrace. His were not the only experiments going wrong: the plan to collectivise farms ended in the 1932 famine in which at least four million died.

For his expensive failure, he was sentenced to five years' jail, which was later commuted to five years' exile in the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan in 1931. A year later he died, reportedly after falling sick while standing on a freezing railway platform.

Giant ape lived alongside humans

2005-11-10T23:30:00.000-06:00

Research into Gigantopithecus blackii began in 1935, when the Dutch paleontologist G.H. von Koenigswald discovered a yellowish molar among the "dragon bones" for sale in a Hong Kong pharmacy. Traditional Chinese medicine maintains that dragon bones, basically fossil bones and teeth, possess curative powers when the fossils are ground into a fine powder, and ingested.

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Robert H. Johnston, 77; Explored Ancient Documents With Digital Technology

2005-10-31T13:36:00.000-06:00

Robert H. Johnston, an archeologist and teacher who combined his interest in ancient texts with digital imaging technology to help uncover new information about the Dead Sea Scrolls and other rare documents, died Oct. 19 at his home in Rochester, N.Y. He was 77.

I learned much about Johnson in the past five years as the Carl Denham Restoration Project worked to decipher various etched artwork and glyphs present on "Skull Island" artifacts recovered in France. Much of what we were able to piece together was thanks to techniques that grew directly from Johnson's innovations.

From the Los Angeles Times:

"Bob was a pioneer," said Bruce Zuckerman, director of the West Semitic Research Project at USC. "He built a bridge between technical enhancement and the humanities."

Zuckerman supplied Johnston with photographs of the so-called Temple Scroll, which is 28 feet, the longest and one of the most important in the Dead Sea collection.

Johnston and his team, including Roger L. Easton, an imaging scientist on the school faculty, as well as others at Eastman Kodak Co. and the Xerox Corp., found 18 Hebrew letters on the scroll, which describes an ideal Hebrew temple.

"That might not sound like a lot, but whole matters of history can turn on a single, specific letter," Zuckerman said.

Johnston and his team made other breakthroughs when they examined a 10th century copy of a treatise by Archimedes, the Greek mathematician who died in 212 BC.

The original Archimedes text, "On the Method of Mechanical Theorems," had been erased so the parchment could be reused as a prayer book. In addition to new text, the pages were covered with painted images and candle wax.

"We were able to extract things that had been trapped," Easton said Thursday of the book and other documents he and Johnston examined. "Bob was the conduit between the scholars and the technicians."

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"Tsunami Giant": A well-produced video hoax

2005-10-12T17:47:00.000-05:00

Found at www.giantology.typepad.com

The video pegs the remains at 150 feet long, and the unidentified creature "may change paleontologists' understanding of prehistoric biology." Great visuals.

Click HERE for video (.mov) format.

Unfortunately, in the case of Carl Denham's "Island of the Rock Skull" (Pulau Batu Tengkorak), the tsunami seems to have further obscured and hidden the fragments of the long-sunk land mass rather than expose anything new.

One Legend Found, Many Still to Go

2005-10-03T12:39:00.000-05:00

Further on the giant squid as well as other enigmas, this time from the New York Times:

"THE human instinct to observe nature has always been mixed with a tendency to embroider upon it. So it is that, over the ages, societies have lived alongside not only real animals, but a shadow bestiary of fantastic ones - mermaids, griffins, unicorns and the like. None loomed larger than the giant squid, the kraken, a great, malevolent devil of the deep. 'One of these Sea-Monsters,' Olaus Magnus wrote in 1555, 'will drown easily many great ships.'"

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Giant squid 'an active predator'

2005-10-01T07:34:00.000-05:00

Japanese zoologists have made the first recording of a live giant squid, one of the strangest and most elusive creatures in the world. The size of a bus, with vast eyes and a querulous beak, Architeuthis has long nourished myth and literature. Until now, the only evidence of giant squids was extraordinarily rare - from dead squids that washed up on remote shores or got snagged on a long-line fish hook or from ships' crews who spotted the deep-sea denizen as it made a sortie near the surface. But almost nothing was known about where and how Architeuthis lives, feeds and reproduces. And, given the problems of getting down to its home in the ocean depths, no-one had ever obtained pictures of a live one. Scientists went to extreme lengths, backed by TV companies, to be the first.

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"Colossal Squid" Revives Legends of Sea Monsters

But, if they're so big, why can't we find them?

Scientists claim to find Homer's Ithaca

2005-10-01T07:29:00.000-05:00

A British team using Australian technology believe they may have solved a mystery that has baffled scholars for more than 2,000 years - the whereabouts of Ithaca a rocky island described in Homer's Odyssey. The team led by management consultant and businessman Robert Bittlestone claimed it had found compelling evidence in support of the location of ancient Ithaca. In a new book: Odysseus Unbound - The Search for Homer's Ithaca, Bittlestone concludes that Ithaca was not the Greek island now called Ithaki, but was instead located on what is believed to have been the previously separated western peninsula of the island of Kefallinia, an area now called Paliki. Geospatial imaging software from Australian firm OziExplorer was integral to the discovery, Bittlestone said. The claim is being plugged as one of the most important classical discoveries since the unearthing of Troy in north-western Turkey in the 1870s.

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Ghosts in the Lens, Tricks in the Darkroom

2005-10-01T07:21:00.000-05:00

From the story:

"Posing for a carte de visite, the vicomte, after Disdéri had snapped several dour shots of him in the de rigueur black frock coat and top hat, decided he would remove his clothes, all except socks and shoes, don what looks very much like a hot water bottle on his head but was in fact some sort of helmet, hold a shield and pretend to be a ghost. His friend (raised eyebrows, forefinger scratching forehead) acts as if the apparition startles him. (He doesn't look half startled enough.) Disdéri also sloshed around some chemical on the exposed negative of the naked vicomte to make the image look less corporeal."

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And HERE as well.

600 barrels of loot found on Crusoe island

2005-09-30T09:22:00.000-05:00

The archipelago is named after Robinson Crusoe, but perhaps it should have been called Treasure Island.

A long quest for booty from the Spanish colonial era appears to be culminating in Chile with the announcement by a group of adventurers that they have found an estimated 600 barrels of gold coins and Incan jewels on the remote Pacific island.

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Enthusiast uses Google to reveal Roman ruins

2005-09-18T09:34:00.000-05:00

From the article:

Using satellite images from Google Maps and Google Earth, an Italian computer programmer has stumbled upon the remains of an ancient villa. Luca Mori was studying maps of the region around his town of Sorbolo, near Parma, when he noticed a prominent, oval, shaded form more than 500 metres long. It was the meander of an ancient river, visible because former watercourses absorb different amounts of moisture from the air than their surroundings do.

His eye was caught by unusual 'rectangular shadows' nearby. Curious, he analysed the image further, and concluded that the lines must represent a buried structure of human origin. Eventually, he traced out what looked like the inner courtyards of a villa.

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Adam, Eve and T. Rex

2005-08-30T14:56:00.000-05:00

Could these people be any more goofy?

From the Los Angeles Times - -

CABAZON, Calif. — Dinny the roadside dinosaur has found religion.

The 45-foot-high concrete apatosaurus has towered over Interstate 10 near Palm Springs for nearly three decades as a kitschy prehistoric pit stop for tourists.

Now he is the star of a renovated attraction that disputes the fact that dinosaurs died off millions of years before humans first walked the planet.

Dinny's new owners, pointing to the Book of Genesis, contend that most dinosaurs arrived on Earth the same day as Adam and Eve, some 6,000 years ago, and later marched two by two onto Noah's Ark. The gift shop at the attraction, called the Cabazon Dinosaurs, sells toy dinosaurs whose labels warn, "Don't swallow it! The fossil record does not support evolution."

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How They Rebuilt Stonehenge

2005-08-26T08:53:00.000-05:00

FROM THE SITE:

For decades the official Stonehenge guidebooks have been full of fascinating facts and figures and theories surrounding the world's greatest prehistoric monument. What the glossy brochures do not mention, however, is the systematic rebuilding of the 4,000 year old stone circle throughout the 20th Century.

This is one of the dark secrets of history archaeologists don't talk about: The day they had the builders in at Stonehenge to recreate the most famous ancient monument in Britain as they thought it ought to look.

From 1901 to 1964, the majority of the stone circle was restored in a series of makeovers which have left it, in the words of one archaeologist, as 'a product of the 20th century heritage industry'. But the information is markedly absent from the guidebooks and info-phones used by tourists at the site. Coming in the wake of the news that the nearby Avebury stone circle was almost totally rebuilt in the 1920s, the revelation about Stonehenge has caused embarrassment among archaelogists. English Heritage, the guardian of the monument, is to rewrite the official guide, which dismisses the Henge's recent history in a few words. Dave Batchelor, English Heritage's senior archaeologist said he would personally rewrite the official guide. 'The detail was dropped in the Sixties', he admitted. 'But times have changed and we now believe this is an important piece of the Stonehenge story and must be told'.

The guide book 'Stonehenge and Neighbouring Monuments,' and the audio tour of the Henge omit any comprehensive mention of the rebuilding in the 20th Century. Only on page 18 is there a slight reference...'A number of the leaning and fallen stones have been straightened and re-erected.' But even that official guide book does contain clues to the large scale restoration, which was not deemed worth a full entry.

Why does John Constable's 1835 painting of the Henge on pages 18 and 19 look so vastly different from the latter-day pristine photograph across pages 28 and 29? REASON: A lot of restoration work had taken place in between the two images being recorded. And, during long hot summers it would be possible - if one could get near to the stones - to see the turf peeling back to reveal the concrete boots into which the majority of the stones are now set. A dead give-away, but difficult to spot now as proximity to the Henge is limited.

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Einstein manuscript found in Netherlands

2005-08-22T11:55:00.000-05:00

The handwritten manuscript titled “Quantum theory of the monatomic ideal gas” was dated December 1924. Considered one of Einstein’s last great breakthroughs, it was published in the proceedings of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin in January 1925.

High-resolution photographs of the 16-page, German-language manuscript and an account of its discovery can be seen here.

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Giant waterfall discovered in California national park

2005-08-12T10:53:00.000-05:00

A great part of the appeal of Carl Denham's adventure films lay in the fact that there was still quite a bit to discover in the world circa the late 1920s and early 1930s. The prospect of finding a giant, ancient wall on an island inhabited by a giant ape-like creature was not so far-fetched.

It's interesting (and refreshing) to learn that there are still corners of our very own continent that are unknown.

CNN.com - More ...

Conan Doyle - plagiarist and murderer?

2005-07-18T16:07:00.000-05:00

A leading pathologist is part of a distinguished team which is hoping to exhume the body of a Westcountry man who they claim could be the real author of the classic Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles.

The team, led by Paignton-based author Rodger Garrick-Steele and scientist Paul Spiring, believe the exhumation of Ipplepen-journalist Bertram Fletcher Robinson could raise the cultural profile of the South Devon village.

Mr Garrick-Steele claims that Conan Doyle used the plot for the classic tale without acknowledging the contribution of Fletcher Robinson before poisoning him to prevent being exposed.

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The best laid plans of mice and men PART 1

2005-06-21T08:27:00.000-05:00

While I’ve been researching the story of Carl Denham and his “Eighth Wonder of the World” since long before Peter Jackson’s KING KONG remake was announced -- and James Mansfield’s chance discovery of long-lost Denham footage and images at Villa Maisonneuve in France certainly occurred with no forethought of a 2005 “King Kong marketing blitz” -- it’s a sad fact that the world of publishing looks for tie-ins almost above all else.

The EIGHTH WONDER book had been scheduled for November release by Carroll & Graf, an imprint of Avalon Publishing Group. They were particularly interested in slightly preceding the Peter Jackson KONG film (especially since Jackson is featured in Mansfield’s EIGHTH WONDER documentary and he contributed a cover blurb to my book). Though I was sympathetic to Avalon’s situation (the publishing business is a nightmare), this attitude made me uneasy from the start. No one likes to see something they’ve worked on for many years regarded as a simple tie-in that seemingly has little value to the publisher on its own. Also, I’m savvy enough about marketing to know that a flood of Universal-licensed KONG film tie-in books would come out in November as well, and these books would get paid placements on display tables in the big chain stores. How would people find EIGHTH WONDER when faced with so many choices? Would they understand that the book is nonfiction?

I’m also reminded of the questions asked by so many publishers regarding EIGHTH WONDER: “Do people remember who Carl Denham was?” Perhaps they do not - - that’s part of the point of the book - - but they surely will know his fictional doppelganger very, very well after Jackson’s KING KONG has been in theaters for a while. It seemed to me that we’d do better coming out in early ’06; still in the wake of Universal huge KONG marketing push (the DVD release), but in a space of our own.

All of these second-guesses were rendered moot when it became clear that the restoration of footage found at Villa Maisonneuve would take longer than originally thought. This is actually good news, as the delay consists principally of shifting to a series of brand new technologies developed mere months ago that may make it possible to recover much, much more than we’d ever hoped. It’s enormously expensive and very time-consuming, but the short-term results we’re seeing are spectacular.

While Mansfield and I - - indeed, the entire Denham Restoration Project staff - - are excited about this turn of events, my publisher was not. They need a book on November, and strongly suggested I alter my material to reflect what we have in hand as of August 1, which would be the necessary deadline for a November release.

I can’t blame them. They sold it to their sales staff and reps as a November ’05 book, and the tie-in to Jackson’s film, whether I liked it or not, slowly but surely became utterly intrinsic to EIGHTH WONDER’s value as far as they were concerned. When I had to notify them about the possible delay - - mere days before Book Expo, and after their catalog had already been printed - - Avalon pulled no punches: It’s November or nothing.

So, sometimes a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do: the book is no longer at Avalon Publishing.

Coming in Part 2: What Next?

Sustainable energy source could solve Bermuda Triangle riddle

2005-06-17T09:50:00.000-05:00

From the article:

One theory now suggests that when the covering of "methane ice" which exists over much of the seabed of the Bermuda Triangle becomes unstable; this causes instability of the sea and an explosive mixture of air and methane above. Any ships or planes travelling over the area could sink or catch fire.

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Orson Welles' The Mercury Theatre on the Air on the Internet

2005-06-14T09:19:00.000-05:00

It’s long been whispered among “those who know” in Hollywood that Orson Welles—a self-described Denham Explores fan from childhood —got much of the more audacious Hearst-related material in Citizen Kane past the powers-that-be because he agreed to cut a single scene that was scripted, storyboarded and designed for the film but never shot.

The sequence in question was to take place at Kane’s sprawling Florida estate, Xanadu, and it contained a fairly disposable bit of dialogue between the powerful millionaire and his bored second wife, Susan Alexander (representing Hearst’s lover, actress Marion Davies). It’s an outdoor scene designed, like the rest of the picture, to be shot on an enclosed soundstage, ostensibly created in order to illustrate Charles Foster Kane’s love of exotic animals and willingness to spend extravagant amounts of money on them and their comfort—all the while maintaining their captivity, of course, reflecting his treatment of the failed singer, Susan. The couple are regarding Kane’s latest prize; a giant ape-like creature sitting blissfully behind a wall and moat, which enclose dozens of acres of the sprawling grounds to form a habitat.

Welles would make hay of this bait-and-switch much later in his life, when he was no longer a viable creative force in town and was for all intents and purposes a professional cocktail party raconteur. “Do you think they would have let me leave ‘rosebud’ in there, with all of its innuendo, if I didn’t agree to pull out something even more embarrassing?” he would ask in conspiratorial low tones. People loved that story; it seemed so very “inside,” and it added another layer to the legend. Hearst's aborted (but apparently earnest) offer to buy Denham's beast - - the details of which were thoroughly quashed after the opening night disaster to avoid embarrassment - - greatly amused everyone who held a grudge against "The Chief."

Welles would also refer to Denham and his beast when discussing his Mercury Theater radio production of "The War of the Worlds," citing live radio reports during the beast's short "rampage" as inspiration for the show's faux-news format.

From the site:

The finest radio drama of the 1930’s was The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a show featuring the acclaimed New York drama company founded by Orson Welles and John Houseman. In its brief run, it featured an impressive array of talents, including Agnes Moorehead, Bernard Herrmann, and George Coulouris. The show is famous for its notorious "War of the Worlds" broadcast, but the other shows in the series are relatively unknown. This site has many of the surviving shows, and will eventually have all of them.

The show first broadcast on CBS and CBC in July 1938. It ran without a sponsor until December of that year, when it was picked up by Campbell’s Soup and renamed The Campbell Playhouse. All of the surviving Mercury Theatre shows are available from this page in RealAudio format (some are also in MP3 format). There are several Campbell Playhouse episodes available here as well, in both RealAudio and MP3 formats; the rest are being added gradually.

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Book Expo

2005-06-05T07:11:00.000-05:00

Every year at this time publishers get together in rows of booths at an enormous convention center in Chicago, Los Angeles, or, as is the case this year, New York to show the trade and media what's coming out in the season ahead. It can be tons of fun; lots of free books, and chances are you'll see a half-dozen celebrities of various magnatudes (I had a three year streak of almost stepping on Dr. Ruth).

As an author, if you can't get to the show (I've got a book to finish!) it's up to the publisher to promote your upcoming book to whatever extent they feel appropriate. Let's spy on my publisher: If you get to the Book Expo and visit the Avalon Publishing booth, drop me a line and let me know how EIGHTH WONDER is faring.

Earthquake pushes up cluster of 10 new islands near Sumatra

2005-05-31T11:50:00.000-05:00

The March earthquake that struck near Nias island off Sumatra was so powerful that it created about 10 new islands, Japan's Geographical Survey Institute said.

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Sea monsters found in desert

2005-05-31T11:45:00.000-05:00

Australia is emerging as a missing link in the evolution of giant prehistoric marine reptiles, says a scientist who has discovered what may be a new species of plesiosaur.

A team from the University of Adelaide and the South Australian Museum unearthed the remains of the creature in Queensland, at what was once a vast inland ocean.

Palaeontologist Dr Ben Kear says he thinks the reptile discovered at the Boulia site may be related to a group of long-necked plesiosaurs known as elasmosaurs.

Kear says teeth found on its jawbone provide the best clue that scientists are dealing with something new.

The jaw has a mouthful of "very large fangs" bunched together at the front and "no other plesiosaur ever discovered has teeth like that", Kear says.

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Unpublished Jack Kerouac Play Discovered

2005-05-25T09:40:00.000-05:00

An unpublished, three-act play by Jack Kerouac, based on his drunken Beat adventures, has been discovered recently and will be excerpted next month in BestLife magazine.

"The part we're excerpting will show Kerouac and Neal Cassady at a racetrack, and they're partying and gambling," Best Life editor-in-chief Stephen Perrine said Monday. "But they're also talking about reincarnation and other obsessions. It's more an exploration of their inner lives."

The entire play will be published this fall by Thunder's Mouth Press.

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"New" giant ape found in DR Congo

2005-05-20T09:34:00.000-05:00

The discovery has baffled scientists. There are three controversial possibilities to explain the origin of the mystery apes:

They are a new species of ape
They are giant chimpanzees, much larger than any so far recorded, but behave like gorillas
They could be hybrids, the product of gorillas mating with chimpanzees.

So far, researchers have little to go on, but they now plan to return to northern DR Congo to study the apes further.

Primatologist Shelly Williams is thought to be the only scientist to have seen the apes.

During her visit to DR Congo two years ago, she says she captured them on video and located their nests.

She describes her encounter with them: "Four suddenly came rushing out of the bush towards me," she told New Scientist.

"If this had been a bluff charge, they would have been screaming to intimidate us. These guys were quiet. And they were huge. They were coming in for the kill. I was directly in front of them, and as soon as they saw my face, they stopped and disappeared."

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Scientists find new Indian monkey

2005-05-20T09:32:00.000-05:00

"What is also remarkable about our discovery is that few would have thought that with over a billion people and retreating wild lands, a new large mammal species would ever be found in India, of all places.

"This region of Arunachal Pradesh, with its rugged mountains and extensive forest cover, is truly one of India's last wild places, one that merits protection at both regional and international levels."

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Scientists say Sumatra quake longest ever recorded

2005-05-19T15:48:00.000-05:00

"Normally, a small earthquake might last less than a second; a moderate sized earthquake might last a few seconds. This earthquake lasted between 500 and 600 seconds (at least 10 minutes)," said Charles Ammon, associate professor of geosciences at Penn State University.

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New Species of Rodent Found in Laos

2005-05-12T07:17:00.000-05:00

"To find something so distinct in this day and age is just extraordinary. For all we know, this could be the last remaining mammal family left to be discovered," Timmins said.

Very little is known about the kha-nyou, other than it seems to prefer areas of limestone outcroppings and forest cover and appears to be a nocturnal vegetarian. It also gives birth to one offspring at a time, rather than a litter.
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"Bigfoot Video Sold to U.S. Television Show"

2005-04-28T06:41:00.000-05:00

From The Winnipeg Free Press:

Relatives say a northern Manitoba ferry operator has sold an unnamed U.S. television show his video footage of a large, dark figure that some are describing as Bigfoot.

Langford Saunders, the uncle of videographer Bobby Clarke, says there were multiple offers for the two minute, 49 second tape. On April 16th, Clarke was operating an automobile ferry on the Nelson River when he claimed to have seen a dark figure walking upright on the riverbank. Clarke says he grabbed his camcorder and recorded the figure looking directly at him, then turning around and heading back into the bush.

Relatives say the creature was at least eight feet tall.

UPDATE

Having seen the segment on "A Current Affair," I can only say that the gullibility of tabloid media continues to be impressive ...

"No one did it better than Sunn Classic Pictures..."

2005-04-25T08:34:00.000-05:00

Not mentioned in the article below is the fact that involvement in a pseudo-documentary dealing with Skull Island (though not produced by Sunn) did much to discredit some otherwise very accurate research into the background of Palau Batu Tengkorak ("Skull Island") by Professor J. L. Ellsworth.

Ellsworth, of course, caused a stir in the late 1950s by asserting his vision of a true “Skull Island” culture as described by Carl Denham and his crew. His work, based on countless interviews and close study of folktales, myths and artwork from islands in the Indonesian and Micronesian regions surrounding the approximate coordinates of the area Denham claimed to have visited, was painstakingly documented and adhered strictly to stringent standards of anthropological fact-gathering. Unfortunately, the Professor’s (fairly unwitting) involvement in the infamous “Journey to Skull Island” documentary effectively — and unfairly — rendered all of his work questionable in the eyes of his colleagues and, eventually, lumped him together with the exploitive work of the “Skull Island” filmmakers as symbolic of scientific fraud in general. He died by his own hand soon after the furor, disgraced and alone.

The article below is also interesting as columnist Vince Staten explains the film marketing/distribution concept of "four-walling," which he claims was new when Sunn Classics deployed the strategy in the 1970's, but was actually in use as far back as the 1920's when, for example, Royal Pictures (home of the Carl Denham Motion Picture Company) used the method.

The Utah outfit's specialties were family films ("Grizzly Adams," "Frontier Fremont") and half-baked pseudo-documentaries ("The Lincoln Conspiracy," "In Search of Historic Jesus").

Sunn Classic unfurled a half-dozen of these pseudo-movies, employing a new style of movie distribution called "four walling." In brief "four walling" means this small distribution house would arrive in town, rent a movie theater down to the "four walls," saturate the local airwaves with commercials, play its little movie and then get out of town with all the proceeds. After all, it had paid all the expenses itself.

Sunn Classic kicked off its entry into the paranormal with a trio of four-walled explorations, "The Bermuda Triangle" in 1975, "Mysterious Monsters" -- read Bigfoot -- in 1976 and "The Lincoln Conspiracy" in 1977.

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Lost Island Societies and Structures

2005-04-18T11:52:00.000-05:00

Can something as epic as the great wall on Palau Batu Tengkorak remain obscure?

Architect and author William N. Morgan relates an experience he had in 1954, from his book, Prehistoric Architecture in Micronesia:

Late one night in Guam I entered a bar for a nightcap. Sitting next to me was a naval aviator whom I did not know. He said he routinely flew aerial reconnaissance missions over the islands of Micronesia, primarily looking for ships fishing illegally in the islands’ territorial waters. An unusual incident had occurred earlier that day during a flight over an island that began with the letter ‘P.’ Unfortunately, I did not recall whether he said Palau or Pohnpei—the two islands are separated by a distance of some sixteen hundred miles. From a high altitude the aviator saw what appeared to be a Venice-like city built on a shallow reef along the island’s shore. His aircraft descended for closer inspection.

Stone walls surrounded innumerable rectangular islets bigger than football fields, and a network of canals and seawalls extended from the open Pacific to dense mangrove swamps along the shore. Since the mysterious city obviously was not a Second World War structure or more recent installation, the aviator did not photograph it although his mission involved aerial photography. At this point I wrongly assumed that the stranger was testing my credibility with an outlandish tale. I asked him how long he had been in the bar and suggested that the next time he should photograph any mysterious cities or pink elephants he might see.

Not until more than thirty years later did I realize that the aviator, whom I have not seen again, had accurately described some of the extraordinary remains of Nan Madol on Pohnpei… To the best of my knowledge no mention of this remarkable work has existed heretofore in the literature of architectural history.

Unlikely Tail of the Rather Excited Whale

2005-04-15T07:14:00.000-05:00

From Edinburgh Evening News - International -

A sea monster that was spotted off the coast of Greenland in the 18th century may have been an excited whale, historians revealed today.

Researchers at St Andrews University examined four accounts of the "most dreadful" serpent-like monster - sighted in 1734 - and tried to link it with known animals in the North Atlantic.

But the team of experts now believe the seafarers actually spotted one of the last remaining Atlantic grey whales - and caught it in an excited state.

Research chief Charles Paxton said: "We think they saw a whale which was for some reason feeling very happy. It reared out of the water, fell on to its back and they saw this thing that they assumed was a tail." But he added: "You wouldn’t expect to see a whale in this state on his own."

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Sumatra: Thousands flee in panic as Indonesian volcano spews into life

2005-04-13T17:04:00.000-05:00

More seismic activity in the Indonesian region.
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And -

A second Indonesian volcano sprang to life after a series of terrifying quakes, intensifying fears that the archipelago's violent geological forces will unleash a new disaster.

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1933 New York Times KONG Review That Confuses Reality with Fantasy

2005-04-13T05:46:00.000-05:00

Click HERE for a list of interesting articles by and about Merian C. Cooper, as well as the New York Times review from March 3, 1933 (available as pdf), wherein reviewer Mordaunt Hall confuses Anne Redman with her fictional counterpart.

Complete 1933 KING KONG Script Online

2005-04-13T05:39:00.000-05:00

What a great resource.
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ANOTHER Earthquake strikes near Sumatra

2005-04-10T19:53:00.000-05:00

If anyone had any doubt regarding the eventful geological history of Palau Batu Tengkorak ("Skull Island") and how it could have virtually disappeared in under a decade after Carl Denham's landing, watching history repeat itself in this series of major quakes (has it been FOUR since December 26, 1004?) should make some converts.
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Paul Du Chaillu, the Source of Tarzan?

2005-04-10T03:37:00.000-05:00

Sarkis Atamian's book--"The Origin of Tarzan: The Mystery of Tarzan's Creation Solved" (Sarkis Atamian) --suggested Du Chaillu's African books might be the source for Edgar Rice Burroughs' inspiration of the famous ape-man: Tarzan of the Apes.

“The roar of the gorilla is the most singular and awful noise heard in these African woods. It begins with a sharp bark, like an angry dog; then glides into a deep bass roll, which literally and closely resembles the roll of distant thunder along the sky, for which I have sometimes been tempted to take it where I did not see the animal. So deep is it that it seems to proceed less from the mouth and throat than from the deep chest and vast paunch.”

Not to be confused, of course, with Philip Jose Farmer's "Tarzan Alive."

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W. Douglas Burden and the Dragons of Komodo

2005-04-08T14:40:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting in a Starbucks, and on a standee at the next table is an ad for Komodo Dragon Blend coffee ("Take home the earthy-rich flavors of the Asia Pacific").

Ironic, because I was just getting set to create an entry about an article on The Unmuseum Website about the explorer W. Douglas Burden:

The party shot several dragons and preserved their bodies for study. The more difficult trick, though, turned out to be bringing some back alive. Traps were built by driving heavy stakes into the ground in a circle, leaving only a large opening on one side. The stakes were then lashed together to form a fence and camouflaged. A nearby tree was stripped of its branches and a rope tied to its top. Fifteen men pulled on the rope to bend the tree over the trap. One part of the rope was fastened to a trigger so that when released the tree would be free to spring back up. The other portion of the rope became a noose that encircled the opening in the stakes. Finally, a nice, ripe, dead boar was placed in the center of the trap as bait.

Normally in a trap like this the bait would be tied to the trigger so that when the animal disturbed the bait, the trap would spring. Burden decided he only wanted to capture the biggest dragons so instead he rigged the trap so he could set it off by pulling a rope from a boma, or blind where he was hiding watching the trap.

Waiting in a small, camouflaged hut in Komodo's jungle was no easy task. The boma was invaded regularly by poisonous foot-long centipedes and stinging scorpions. The men often found themselves thrashing around trying to ward off the creatures.

The account above is somewhat summarized from Douglas Burden's book, "Dragon Lizards of Komodo: An Expedition to the Lost World of the Dutch East Indies" , which I purchased in e-book format (basically a CD containing the scanned book). From the book, here is, ostensibly, a first-hand account:

I told the men that I thought the big one was coming and to hold themselves ready. Then we waited without seeing or hearing a thing for about half an hour. Suddenly one of the coolies made a strange sound. Then he looked around at the other men, and seemed to be unduly excited. On peeping through the back of the boma, I saw that here, in truth, was a dragon—a living remnant of the monster lizards of the Pleistocene.

One black eye was fixed on the boma. I did not dare move. Now he started forward again. He was headed right for the boma. The coolie who had seen what was happening shrunk back. I could see the ugly brute very well. He looked black as ink. His bony armor was scarred and blistered. His eyes, deep set in their sockets, looked out on the world from underneath overhanging brows. Defosse waited placidly without saying a word. Now the creature’s footsteps were plainly audible. He passed right by on one side of the boma. I could have reached out and touched him with my hand, and I had the tingling sensation of actually having a dragon walk by within a yard of where I was standing. The coolies were very restless, and Defosse spent his time keeping them still.

It's fairly well known that Merian C. Cooper was a friend of Burden's and was indeed inspired in part by the Komodo "dragon" stories to pursue a screen story about giant animals.

The old beast, Burden claimed, was over ten feet long and stood in the clearing staring at the boma—and Burden himself—for a full half hour, as if somehow knowing he was being watched and patiently weighing his options.

Finally, he made up his mind and charged the baited trap. Burden triggered his snare and the sapling tree launched upright, enclosing the snare net and yanking the creature upward. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the tree snapped violently under the weight of the beast and it was on the ground, held only by a noose around the waist. Burden’s Malay crew—perfectly sensibly—refused the approach the enraged creature, which was now thrashing his claws and tail about wildly and vomiting. The stench was incredible. Big-game hunter Defosse had had been sharpening his lassoing skills with this sort of eventuality in mind. After three lines were secured, they took the three hundred-pound lizard back to their camp and released it into a sturdy heavy timber and steel mesh cage, planning to take measurements in the morning after it had tired itself out. The lizard continued vomiting, which produced such a horrid, nearly overpowering odor that Burden had the cage moved a quarter-mile from camp. The next day they awoke find wire mesh at the top of the cage torn and the creature gone.

“We felt so sure of him that we hadn’t even taken photographs… There was the hole gaping at us, as evidence of a degree of strength we had never suspected,” wrote Burdon, straining the limits of credulity every bit as hard as the lizard evidently tugged at the cage bars.

It’s a gripping account; perhaps the climax of “Dragon Lizards of Komodo” and certainly the most quoted section (it’s a tale retold, for example, in the book “Dinosaurs in the Attic: An Excursion Into the American Museum of Natural History”). Unfortunately, on the last page of the book, after the careful “Herpetological notes” and a short “Literature cited” section, the following, single afternote appears in smaller type:

NOTE: The snaring of the large lizard which eventually escaped was actually not witnessed by any white man. The account as given in Chapter VII has been drawn from similar scenes that were witnessed.

And Carl Denham was dismissed as a "showman"?

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'Loch Ness' eel frightens tourist.

2005-04-08T09:25:00.000-05:00

A monster eel, which is believed to have taken up residence at a Warburton trout farm, east of Melbourne, has reportedly been sighted this morning.

The eel, which is said to be at least three metres long with a head the size of a football, has been scaring fishermen at Tommy Finn's trout farm.

Farm manager Gary Wales says an Irish tourist got the fright of his life when he encountered the eel early this morning.

"Next thing he's banging on me bloody wall on the door of the house, banging, saying 'Gary, Gary I've seen it'. So I flew out of bed right, I said 'how big is it mate?' He said 'big as my bloody car'," he said.

The operators of a trout farm are offering a $1000 reward to anyone who catches what has been described as Melbourne's own Loch Ness monster.

It is believed the eel washed into the farm's ponds during this month's record breaking storms.

23/02/2005. ABC News Online

Universal Motion Picture Camera

2005-04-06T06:16:00.000-05:00

Information on the type of camera Carl Denham used in his days as a lensman for Fox Newsreels in the early 1920s, from the excellent Sam Dodge motion picture camera site.
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Merian C. Cooper Bio

2005-04-04T10:16:00.000-05:00

Drop on by Amazon and preorder "Living Dangerously : The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong" by Mark Vaz

Expert Says "Super Volcano" Could Dwarf Indonesia's Earthquake Catastrophes

2005-04-04T09:48:00.000-05:00

A volatile part of the globe, to say the least. It's no wonder Palau Batu Tengkorak ("Skull Island") shattered and sunk long ago.

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Judas to Tell His Story

2005-04-04T06:22:00.002-05:00

ABOUT 2000 years after the Gospel according to Judas sowed discord among early Christians, a Swiss foundation is translating the controversial text named after the apostle, said to have betrayed Jesus.

The 62-page papyrus manuscript of the text was uncovered in Egypt during the 1950s or 1960s, but its owners did not fully comprehend its significance until recently, according to the Maecenas Foundation in Basel.

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First World War.com - A multimedia history of World War One

2005-04-02T08:10:00.000-06:00

Found while researching Carl Denham's flying days in World War I. An excellent, immersive resource.
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And Then There Were Giants

2005-04-01T13:13:00.000-06:00

"Von Keorigswald estimated that, had the creature been intact, it would have stood at least 13 ft. high. He named the creature Gigantopithicus, meaning 'giant ape'. Von Koenigswald's search for giants took him to Java, where in 1941 he unearthed the fragment of an enormous jawbone containing three teeth. These teeth were even more man-like in appearance than those of the Gigantopithicus but where slightly smaller. Von Koenigswald named this new find Meganthropus, or 'Giant Java Man'."

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April Fool's Synchronicity

2005-04-01T10:30:00.000-06:00

Over at kongisking.net, Peter Jackson and crew have posted "Production Diary: Day 123," a very funny April 1st edition that alludes to a pair of SON OF KONG sequels.

But Jackson goes further, explaining that his fictional Denham and Son of Kong will, in the sequels, actually travel to Europe to fight Nazi bio-engineered creatures with giant ape-augmented weapons.

Since Jackson is familiar with the historical Denham, this is an especially interesting reversal of the Nazi's actual pursuit of Carl Denham's films, records and artifacts (as uncovered in my research for EIGHTH WONDER). I wonder how many fans who chuckle at the Jackson parody are aware of Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler's actual pursuit of "Skull Island" through the Ahnenerbe wing of the SS?

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Reanalysis Reveals Tsunami-Spawning Quake to Be Second Largest Known

2005-04-01T07:56:00.000-06:00

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"When Giant fellas alive, them big animals still bin walkabout this country... "

2005-03-31T06:50:00.000-06:00



From a book called Pyramids In The Pacific: The Unwritten History Of Australia:

"It is one of the objectives of this book to demonstrate that these people not only discovered and mined the mysterious "great south land" and its neighbours, but established colonies {some of which may have survived for generations} and were large and important enough to establish a local ruling class. By the time they vanished they had influenced the cultures of the native peoples of the region, leaving behind them ghostly megalithic ruins of temples, tombs and pyramids and rock scripts in a host of ancient tongues; relics that continue to perplex conservative historians and question the dogma that the peoples of the ancient world lacked the ability to construct and navigate oceangoing water craft."

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Attack of the Subtitle Monster

2005-03-30T07:56:00.000-06:00

Anyone who's ever written a book can tell you that it's a fairly jarring experience when your work - - the fruit of your labor, often created in solitude - - gradually becomes an entity shared with the publisher.

The book business is, to put it mildly, tough. Publishers have to find a way to make a profit in a business where, for instance, their very product is returnable by the stores that buy it. One of the big chains can stock 5000 copies of your tome, but they can then ship back 4700 of them and only pay for the 300 they kept. I read a story recently where a buyer for one of the chains explained that sometimes she needs certain colors on book covers for the upcoming season and will increase her order of certain titles on that basis. Amazing.

So it's quite understandable that my editor and I have had somewhat animated discussions about certain requests made by the sales and marketing people regarding EIGHTH WONDER. Our latest debate was one that I hear is common for many nonfiction books: What, exactly, will be the subtitle of the book?

Take a trip down the nonfiction aisle of your local Barnes & Noble and it quickly becomes clear that the subtitle of a reality-based book - - also referred to as the sales handle - - carries a heavy load. Your actual title can be as short and pithy as you wish, but you better load up after the colon.

William Germano, vice president and publishing director at Routledge and the author of Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious About Serious Books (University of Chicago Press, 2001), puts it thusly: "We've led authors to believe the way to make their book attractive is to start with something general or jazzy, then drop your guard and show what you really are writing about." (More here.)

So, EIGHTH WONDER is actually EIGHTH WONDER: THE AMAZING TRUE STORY OF CARL DENHAM AND THE BEAST-GOD OF SKULL ISLAND. "General and jazzy" followed by exactly what it is that I'm writing about.

Alas, after the contracts are signed my editor relates to me the gist of a meeting he's had with the marketing folks. "We have to get 'King Kong' in the title. Can you do that?"

Well, I explain, "King Kong" is not a name that the actual Carl Denham used for the beast he brought back from "Skull Island." It was a name created by RKO Pictures for their adaptation of Denham's story. In a book that seeks to, in many ways, rehabilitate the soiled reputation of a misunderstood figure, using the name created by RKO for a film that depicted Denham himself so poorly would be inappropriate.

“I understand,” my editor says. “Now, how will you work ‘King Kong’ into the subtitle? Let me know in the next couple days.”

So that’s that. Given the job that folks in publishing sales have to do, it’s understandable that they’d want the “big name” up front.

So, the title is now as follows –

EIGHTH WONDER: CARL DENHAM AND THE BEAST-GOD OF SKULL ISLAND - - THE AMAZING TRUE STORY OF KING KONG

Thank goodness for colons and em-dashes - - which, fortunately, do not actually appear on the cover design itself.

It's comforting to note that Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels was originally titled Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and Then a Captain of Several Ships.

KING KONG on TV: So Good It's...Great

2005-03-30T07:50:00.000-06:00

For some reason, it's irresistable to watch the original KING KONG when it's on TV. Maybe it's because you know subconciously that many millions of other people are sharing the experience in their own living rooms at that very moment.

April 3rd, 7am Central Time, Turner Classic Movies

The Mighty Kong: So Bad It's... Bad

2005-03-29T07:21:00.000-06:00

From JABOOTU'S BAD MOVIE DIMENSION:

"Poor Kong. Since starring in what is perhaps the greatest monster movie of all time – only The Bride of Frankenstein vies for the crown – his screen appearances have been increasingly dismal. First there was a fun but juvenile sequel, Son of Kong, rushed out the same year as his father’s appearance. Japan’s Toho Studios represented him with a moth-eaten ape suit, first in King Kong vs. Godzilla and then in King Kong Escapes. Dino De Laurentiis mauled him via an admittedly better ape suit in his lousy 1976 remake, and then delivered the coup de grâce in the hilariously atrocious King Kong Lives. As well, a hideous cartoon series in the ‘60s followed the lead of King Kong Escapes by continuing the adventures of mad scientist/Kong nemesis Dr. Who. (!) The only memorable thing about the show, which inevitable turned Kong into a small boy’s pet ala Gentle Ben (see also that same decade’s Moby Dick cartoon series), was the theme song. This reminded us that "You know the name of / King Kong / You know the fame of / King Kong / Ten times as big as a maan!""

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Another Quake in Sumatra Region

2005-03-29T07:06:00.000-06:00

From CNN: Hundreds of people are reported dead after a massive earthquake struck off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, just three months after a huge quake and tsunami devastated the region. Indonesia's National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Management and Refugees puts the death toll at 330.
This is yet another deadly quake in the region where Palau Batu Tengkorak, or "Skull Island," once was located before breaking up in a similar cataclysm.
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Missing Links: The Jungle Origins of King Kong

2005-03-23T06:37:00.000-06:00

Excellent essay by Gerald Peary:

"In April, 1930, representatives of "Congo Pictures, Ltd." walked along Market Street in San Francisco offering the theatres purchase rights to a picture, INGAGI, said to show footage of Sir Hubert Winstead of London's sensationalist travels into the Belgian Congo. Every theatre but one turned down the film as a fake. The Orpheum decided not only to exhibit INGAGI but to promote it vigorously. A tabloid newspaper filled with stills from INGAGI was distributed door to door in the area of the theatre. A jungle exhibition was set up in the lobby. The Orpheum brought in $4,000 worth of business the opening day, an unprecedented $23,000 for the first week. RKO Studio, owner of the Orpheum, picked up national rights, and soon INGAGI was playing everywhere. It doubled house records in Seattle, was termed "the talk of the town" in Chicago, and soon was among the highest grossing films in the USA."

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DVD Comparison: "King Kong"

2005-03-23T06:24:00.000-06:00

From DVDBeaver.com, a comparison (with sample stills) of various KING KONG dvds.

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Team Locates Huge Japanese Sub

2005-03-22T07:55:00.000-06:00

"We came up to her from behind, and you could tell immediately she was from a different era," said Kerby. "Almost a turn-of-the-century, Jules Verne look to her. Lots of big rivets."

"Their mission, which was never completed, reportedly was to use the aircraft to drop rats and insects infected with bubonic plague, cholera, typhus and other diseases on U.S. cities."

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Lost Races in the Cinema

2005-03-22T05:33:00.000-06:00

Comprehensive list of "lost race"-themed films by Jessica Amanda Salmonson.

"KING KONG. 1933. Based on the novel by Edgar Wallace. Producer/director Merian C. Cooper wisely got stop-motional animator Willis O'Brien to help out, resulting in a classic that is still a powerhouse of a film after all these years. When we first meet Kong we also meet a tribal people in the Indian Ocean "way west of Sumatra" who worship Kong on Skull Island. As one of the characters states, the architecture of this island is "built so long ago that the people who live there have slipped back, forgotten the higher civilization that built it" -- so they are no mere oceanic tribe, but a degraded remnant of a Lost Race. Only a few of the many sequels & imitations retain the lost race element even in passing, but some few do. The original sequel Son of Kong (1933) for example does take place on Skull Island but the lost race that lived there among the prehistoric beasts seems to have moved away."

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ABC News: The Mystery of Hogzilla Solved

2005-03-22T05:08:00.000-06:00

Georgia hunter Chris Griffin poses with the beast that became known as "Hogzilla."



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DeLaurentiis on "Tomorrow Show" SNL Skit

2005-03-21T12:31:00.000-06:00

"Tom Snyder": Mr. De Laurentiis, a few members of the Hollywood press have said that with all the money you spent on 'King Kong', you could have made twenty good movies instead. Some reporters have called you everything from a 'toy commercial maker' to a ruthless 'monkey pimp'. How, sir, do you answer these charges?

"Dino DeLaurentiis": Okay.. I want to tell you something.. when the Jaws die, nobody cry.. when my Kong die, everybody cry. Everybody love my Kong... kids, women, intellectuals, all love my Kong. "

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King Kong Returns to Sell Fords

2005-03-21T12:22:00.000-06:00

From ADAGE.COM (registration required)

Marketer: Ford Motor Co.
Brand: Ford Ranger
Title: 'King Kong'
Agency: J. Walter Thompson, Bangkok
King Kong has returned and is currently living in Thailand, where he and his son are promoting Ford pickups.

Cartographers Redrawing Maps After Tsunami

2005-03-21T09:12:00.000-06:00

One of the strange consequences of the tragic tsunami disaster in Indonesia is the fact that the ocean bottom in the region has changed so dramatically that cartographers will have to re-map the area. Palau Batu Tengkorak, or "Skull Island," happens to have been located in this very area, so some of the data gathered might turn up interesting new information about the habitat of Carl Denham's beast.

KATHERINE PFLEGER SHRADER
Associated Press 1/6/05
WASHINGTON - Water depths in parts of the Straits of Malacca, one of the world's busiest shipping channels off the coast of Sumatra, reached about 4,000 feet before last month's tsunami. Now, reports are coming in of just 100 feet - too dangerous for shipping, if proved true.

A U.S. spy imagery agency is working around the clock to gather information, warn mariners and begin the time-consuming task of recharting altered coastlines and ports throughout the region.

Officials at the Bethesda, Md.-based National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency say the efforts will take international cooperation over months, if not years.

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They might be giants, or dwarfs

2005-03-21T09:08:00.000-06:00

Evolution often takes unexpected, and sometimes bizarre, directions on islands

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff | November 16, 2004

Their lives could have been the plot of a monster movie. Three-foot-tall humans recently discovered to have lived on an Indonesian island had to dodge giant lizards and rats the size of dogs. They were so tiny it appears they couldn't even overcome adult dwarf elephants, forced instead to hunt the animals' young.

But their adult size -- comparable to a modern 4-year-old -- had an upside, too, apparently allowing them to survive in isolation for tens of thousands of years. The existence of these little people, reported in the journal Nature last month, provides new scientific fodder for a mysterious evolutionary phenomenon that can radically shrink or balloon a species' size when it becomes isolated on islands.

"When species get to an island, you get evolution taking unexpected directions," said James H. Brown, distinguished professor of biology at the University of Mexico who has studied the phenomenon. "And some of it is bizarre."

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Is this the moving picture ship?

2005-03-20T12:05:00.000-06:00

The EIGHTH WONDER blog is now on the air.

EIGHTH WONDER acts as companion volume to a documentary by filmmaker James Mansfield. The book is scheduled for NOVEMBER, 2005 release, published by Avalon Publishing Group. This site will provide updates on the progress of the book and documentary, as well as the occasional preview of what is shaping up to be a fascinating project.

Like most blogs, I anticipate that this will be a work-in-progress that will expand as I figure out how everything works. In the meantime, welcome aboard.

Launched: The EIGHTH WONDER Blog

2005-03-20T12:01:00.000-06:00