Local lore/monsters? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2021, 10:41:50 pm
content: Hello, do any of you have any colorful local lore, or especially any unusual or quite probably imaginary "monsters". Many areas of the US including (especially?) my own have a local oral tradition of stories about strange places or people, which would qualify as "strange" Where I live, there even is a magazine about them. and many books. But as anybody who grew up around here can testify, some of these stories are true. One can visit the places they happened.As somebody who lives inland, I rarely, if ever have felt threatened by sharks. Certainly, Ive seen them in the water while deep sea fishing. And even run my fingers over their mny rows of sharp teeth in a restaurant near Tomales Bay in Nothern California, a popular vacation spot for great white sharks, its my understanding.But as far as I know they have never made their way up the Passaic (perhaps the most polluted river in the USA ) into my neck of the woods. They would have to jump very far or portage their way around the Great Falls in Paterson in order to access its upper reaches, and the Great Swamp. (an Amazon like area where its easy to imagine primordial creatures.) There are fish in there, including some very large ornamental carp, some of which look like the colorful fish in a koi pond. So a shark would probably find enough to eat. But I think we could count on the Great Falls in Paterson, keeping them out. Or at least providing a challenge worthy of the giant man eating, primordial fish.On a railroad bridge over a creek quite a bit south of here, there is a mural of "Jaws" teeth around the central arch f a railroad bridge with three arches, reputed to be the site of a vicious shark attack in 2016. But wait, this bridge is over a middle sized freshwater creek andquitea long distance from the ocean.And so starts a true story, which actually was made into he novel and film, This shark attack was very real, two lost their lives and another lost his leg, this was the true story behind Peter Benchley's "Jaws" novel and film, If indeed Sydney is a city with a substantial shark problem, where the nightly news report features a shark report. I think you might want to hear what happened here in NJ. If there is any lesson we should take away is that when somebody tells us they have seen a shark in a place where they might pose a danger to humans we should listen to them!To understand the relevant geography one has to know about the so called inland seaway. The US Atlantic coast is a great area for boaters and sailors because of a series of barrier islands that provide an easy north south route, protected from the ocean that goes for hundreds of miles along the eastern coast of the US. Its these narrow barrier islands that run north and south that provide the havens for sharks who seem to like warmer waters behind them. They used to be among the favorite haunts for pirates who terrorized shipping between the islands of the Carribean and the rest of North America and Europe. Unlike Australia we don't hve man eating crocodiles in any real abundance. However there are alligators which seem to be inching their way northward as temperatures rise, and also occasionally sharks. ANd some alligators, probably former ets have indeed been found in the New York City sewer system.New jersey, it will become evident, is also very fertile ground for the "science" of cryptozoology, or the making up of mythical animals. As well as eccentricity. A tolerant attribute which I think promotes mental health.Here are some resources on this attack, which may be one of the most famous shark attacks of all time.Article in WeirdNJ MagazineWikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Shore_shark_attacks_of_1916(dozens of links)

author: artag
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2021, 10:55:22 pm
content: I find the North American fascination with monsters interesting. I live in England, which has it's share of ghost stories but they're almost always people (or ex-people) retracing the steps they took in life and advertising some wrongdoing.North American stories seem to be more monster-based : perhaps from Lovecraft, or perhaps his stories were just in the same trend. Films, as a more recent form of literature, often follow the same trend; either nameless monsters like Amityville or possessions (a monster taking over a live person) like Carrie.

author: mindcrime
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 03, 2021, 02:41:48 pm
content: There's all sorts of "local lore" around where I grew up (southeastern NC, USA). But probably the best known bit concerns an area quite close to my childhood home in Brunswick County. I never had the opportunity to encounter this myself, but it was quite a popular legend locally for a long time.The story goes like this: There was a train line that ran down to the coast, towards Wilmington, NC. Close to Wilmington, near the border of Columbus County and Brunswick County is the tiny little community of Maco. There's not much in Maco, it's basically just an intersection. Anyway... one night a train was coming through, when part of the train came loose from the rest and drifted to a halt on the track right near Maco. The conductor on the caboose was a man named Joe Baldwin, and he immediately realized that a following train would likely run into this stalled out piece of train, so he grabs a couple of lanterns and starts swinging them furiously, trying to warn the next train to stop. Sadly, the other train was coming too fast, and it collided with Baldwin's car, and he was decapitated in the wreck.For years afterwards, locals told of a mysterious light (or lights in some variations) that would appear, swaying and bouncing around the train tracks at Maco. It became known as the "Maco Light" or "Joe Baldwin's lantern" as the locals held that the light was the spirit of Joe Baldwin, looking for his head which was never recovered after the collision...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maco_lighthttps://northcarolinaghosts.com/coast/maco-light/

author: mindcrime
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 03, 2021, 02:55:33 pm
content: Another one from southeastern NC is the "Beast of Bladenboro".https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_of_BladenboroAnd even more near and dear to my heart, is the history of people of "Crusoe Island". Crusoe is about 20 miles from where I lived as a kid, and my dad actually grew up right beside Crusoe in a place called Old Dock, NC. Growing up, stories always circulated around our area to the effect of "never, ever go to Crusoe unless you are from there, or know somebody from there, and have a damn good reason to be there." Beyond that, the exact reasons for this admonition were always left a little vague, other than hand-wavy references to "They don't like strangers much there." It wasn't until I was an adult many years later that I discovered this purported history of Crusoe, and explanation for the extremely insular / isolated lifestyle of the residents there.https://restorationsystems.com/uncategorized/swamp-people-french-haitian-aristocrats-in-the-green-swamp-of-north-carolina/

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2021, 03:52:12 pm
content: From time to time a black cougar was reported to have been seen here in treviso's province, even went in the newspapers

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2021, 05:11:32 pm
content: I've seen photos of them. Their markings are really beautiful.Quote from: JPortici on May 03, 2021, 03:52:12 pm

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2021, 07:12:13 pm
content: The story of the Haitian Revolution is incredible, with many lessons for humanity.This documentary "Egalite for All: Toussaint Louverture & The Haitian Revolution " is riveting.I didn't know this story.No discussion of local monsters or Haiti would be complete without the "zombi"

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2021, 07:46:17 pm
content: In my former home, San Francisco, a lot of Latin American people believe in voodoo.This story also talks of a phantom "kangaru" - like beast. Like the large-legged Australian marsupial. Here in America.https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Jersey_Devil

author: G7PSK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2021, 01:10:58 pm
content: Where I live in Norfolk UK there is the story of the brown lady, whenever she is seen it means one of the Townsends is going to die. The Townsends are a big local land owner family They came to fame with Turnip Townsend who is credited to have instigated the three year crop rotation turnips being one of them.https://countrysidebooks.co.uk/blogs/news/the-brown-lady-of-raynham-hallhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Lady_of_Raynham_Hall#:~:text=According%20to%20legend%2C%20the%20%22Brown,notorious%20for%20his%20violent%20temper.

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2021, 02:23:15 pm
content: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChupacabraAnd also one of my favorite Genesis songshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squonk

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 04, 2021, 04:19:34 pm
content: How is this technical?I hate to delete these threads as people have put input (but Dave may). Please don't start them in the first place

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 05, 2021, 12:34:02 am
content: Quote from: Simon on May 04, 2021, 04:19:34 pmYep, please don't start threads like this.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2021, 09:26:02 am
content: I don't know if this really fits but we do have the world's oldest water in my city, so that's kind of cool I guess.

author: Ed.Kloonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2021, 09:51:32 am
content: Quote from: Red Squirrel on May 05, 2021, 09:26:02 amI looked that up and found it interesting. Thanks.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 05, 2021, 11:43:41 am
content: Quote from: Red Squirrel on May 05, 2021, 09:26:02 amreally? what's it kept in?

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2021, 12:25:53 pm
content: Quote from: Simon on May 05, 2021, 11:43:41 amA little over 2.4km deep.https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/30896/20210428/worlds-oldest-water-found-canada-shed-light-beginning-life.htm

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2021, 12:45:11 pm
content: Isn't all water the same age? about 4 billlion years old,formed around the same time as the earth.Being a sealed system it cant escape from our atmosphere so it just keeps getting recycled.

author: artag
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2021, 12:47:44 pm
content: Water isn't an element.

author: G7PSK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2021, 12:53:09 pm
content: Quote from: themadhippy on May 05, 2021, 12:45:11 pmWater is older than the Earth it was part and parcel of the leftovers when the Sun formed What was left from that formed the rest of the solar system and as the sun is not first generation star everything in it and the solar system formed from previous super nova's.

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2021, 02:26:01 pm
content: There is water in space, in an extremely rarefied form.The amount of water on the Earth may be increasing, kind of like as if it was raining.We really don't know. But there may be much more than we thought in the past.A huge patch of water was recently discoveredseveral billions of light years away (so also in the past, a long time ago, also. So this water is very "old". But this "cloud" of water is also very large.The discovery at quasar APM 08279+5255was made by the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, making use of a technology known as Z-Spec.

author: G7PSK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2021, 02:37:28 pm
content: Quote from: cdev on May 05, 2021, 02:26:01 pmThere is now thought to be up to ten times the amount of water on earth than in the oceans, rather in the earth bound up in the rocks and as earth cools and shrinks water is forced from the rocks.

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2021, 04:00:12 pm
content: This storyof thehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chupacabrareminds me of a real animal, thats found in Borneo. Its a tufted ground squirrel of Borneo, also known as the "vampire squirrel"It is the animal on Earth with the largest and most voluminous tail. But the reason its well known globally, which has been verified as true, is that this squirrel is a Omnivore, like us . US squirrels are also omnivores, but the only "meat" they eat is insects.Like the mythical Chupacabra (Happy Cinco De Mayo!) they lie in wait for, and kill much larger animals and in the Borneo squirrels case, drink its blood, and or selectively feed on its remains, leaving the rest behind, which presumably other animals eat. As far as I know they are the only rodent that behaves this way.Definitely they are well on the way towards monster status. Its conceivable that these squirrels might prey on human children, who are roughly the same size as some of their prey. Since I read about this I haven't looked at squirrels the same way as I did before. They have a dark side.This is a dead sqirrel that somebody shot that had large lower teeth, "fangs" One of these two teeth which were overgrown was beginning to look like it would penetrate his brain soon. It must have been in tremendous pain.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 05, 2021, 05:33:06 pm
content: Water is Hydrogen and Oxygen so can be split at which point it's no longer water and when recombined becomes "new" water. Even if it evaporates it will leave behind "stuff" that was dissolved in it so I think what they mean by oldest water is water that has not evaporated and been there with whatever is in it for a long time. I mean what if some evaporated and "new" water condensed into it, they would probably still claim that it is "old", it seems to be more about what is in it than the actual H2O itself

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2021, 05:41:07 pm
content: Ice cores from places like Greenland and Antarctica contain a tremendous amount of information about past volcanism and compostion of the atmosphere.. even things like pollen. (so using it they can get an idea of what plants existed in the past)They can determine down to the year and even month when volcanic eruptions thousands of years ago occurred.Quote from: Simon on May 05, 2021, 05:33:06 pm

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 05, 2021, 05:43:34 pm
content: Yes ice is ice, it's frozen so will stay put for a while

author: mindcrime
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 05, 2021, 06:08:27 pm
content: And somebody said this thread wasn't "technical". Harrrrummphhh.

author: Ed.Kloonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2021, 08:48:44 pm
content: Quote from: mindcrime on May 05, 2021, 06:08:27 pmYeah. Whilst many of us are here because FB is so horrendous in regards to quality of crowd sample source, it's a shame that being social as well as professional with such intelligent peeps is being frowned upon. By no way am I criticizing the rules or the upholders of them. Just noticing a cause and effect.