It was February 1945 in the mangrove morasses of Ramree Island along the coast of Burma. It was here where a dark page of World War II was written. When Japanese soldiers withdrew from a losing fight with Allied soldiers, they trudged into a labyrinth of mud and water that would spell doom into their lives. Turns out this muddy waterway is infested with saltwater crocodiles. The Battle of Ramree Island was a lesser battle of the Burma Campaign, and is remembered not for its implications on the battlefield but for a macabre anecdote: hundreds of Japanese soldiers reportedly were eaten by crocodiles in one evening. While this story was glamorized by the vivid prose of a Canadian naturalist, the modern legend has fascinated imaginations for decades; even though its authenticity is as murky as the wetlands themselves. This is the story of Ramree—where war, wildlife and myth meet. The Burma Campaign and Ramree’s Strategic Significance To fully comprehend the terror of Ramree, we must first turn back the clock to 1945 during which time the Pacific theater of World War II was a seething cauldron of desperation. The Burma Campaign, overshadowed by the wars in Europe and the Pacific Islands, was a brutal struggle to drive the Japanese from their grip on Burma (Myanmar). Ramree Island is a 520-square-mile spot in the chain of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and was strategically valuable in its location. Its low-lying terrain was appropriate for an airfield to support Allied action against the mainland, and it was a target that General William Slim’s Fourteenth Army wished to seize. The British XV Indian Corps carried out Operation Matador—a landing operation to take Ramree—during January 1945. The estimated 2,700-man Japanese garrison under General Toshinari Noda had occupied the island since 1942. Encircled and cut off from supplies, the Japanese fought bravely, using the dense jungles of the island and coastal defenses to slow the Allied advance. Intensive naval bombardment and ground assaults by early February shattered their lines. Between 900–1,000 Japanese soldiers, aware of their impending defeat, retreated eastward, with the hope of fighting their way through the mangrove swamps of the island to a more sizable force on the mainland. Little did they know, the Japanese forces would be moving into one of nature’s deadliest traps. Into the Mangroves: A Desperate Retreat Ramree is an environment of twisted roots where every step is in gooey, knee-deep mud. The air is heavily swarmed with mosquitoes that are also carriers of malaria and dengue. Scorpions and venomous snakes have their sanctuaries in the swamps, and the brackish water harbors a far more dangerous enemy. Saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) lay dominion over Ramree’s waters, and are the largest modern-day reptiles on Earth growing up to 23 feet long (approx. 7 meters) with bone-crushing jaws. For the Japanese soldiers—exhausted, starving, and weighed down with guns and scarce ammunition—the swamps were a journey into doom. On February 19, 1945, the evening that the retreating Japanese charged through the darkness, the Allies closed in on them. British motor launches roamed up and down the coastal waterways, cutting off escape channels, while ground troops encircled the swamps, shooting stragglers. The soldiers, some of them injured, others dysentery-stricken, had a gauntlet to get through. Hunger clawed at them; the mud grabbed at their boots.. and then, as one version has it, the crocodiles struck. The Crocodile Massacre: Bruce Wright’s Account The most vivid account of the night was given by Bruce Stanley Wright, who was a Canadian naturalist and Royal Canadian Navy officer attached to the Burma Campaign. In his book Wildlife Sketches Near and Far, published in 1962, Wright recorded the terrible account through his following passage: “That night was the most horrible that any member of the M. L. [motor launch] crews ever experienced. The scattered rifle shots in the pitch-black swamp punctured by the screams of wounded men crushed in the jaws of huge reptiles, and the blurred worrying sound of spinning crocodiles made a cacophony of hell that has rarely been duplicated on earth. At dawn the vultures arrived to clean up what the crocodiles had left… Of about one thousand Japanese soldiers that entered the swamps of Ramree, only about twenty were found alive.” Wright’s vivid account, later echoed by conservationist Roger Caras and once featured in the Guinness Book of World Records, helped cement Ramree’s place in popular lore—even though his version was based on secondhand reports rather than direct observation. His description suggests a massacre on horrific scales: scores of men, stunned and caged, being torn limb from limb by crocodiles in a feeding frenzy. British soldiers on the motor launches, stationed at the perimeters of the swamps, heard cries and gunfire throughout the night. However, Wright was not part of the soldiers in the swamps. His evidence was hearsay from motor launch crews, hearing rather than seeing the chaos. The question arises here: did the Japanese really get massacred by crocodiles, or has time been subject to war inflation? Unraveling the Truth: Crocodiles or Pandemonium? Modern scholarship raises a healthy skepticism about how far the crocodile attacks went. In 2000, herpetologist Steven Platt interviewed several of the older Ramree Island residents who lived through the war. Their account, plus military records, shows a far less sensational truth. Platt estimated that only 10–15 soldiers likely died from being attacked by crocodiles, primarily as scavengers gnawed on bodies or isolated stragglers. Most of the Japanese dead—hundreds of the 900–1,000 who had entered the swamps—fell victim to more mundane but no less fatal processes. These included bullets from the Allies, drowning, starvation, malaria, dysentery, or snake and scorpion bites. Saltwater crocodiles are known to be strong, but some researchers and historians feel that the Ramree account had been exaggerated. Furthermore, the swamps themselves were a death sentence. The Japanese, cut off by Allied soldiers, had no access to food or fresh water. Some died in tidal creeks or were trapped in mud, unable to move.
Humanity’s Timeless Search for Alien Life
In the immense reaches of outer space with its billions of galaxies, stars, and planets, the question of whether we’re alone has captivated humanity for centuries. The timeless search for alien life is a pursuit of curiosity that challenges our understanding of life itself. One that pushes the boundaries of science, philosophy and technology. As we gaze up at the night sky, we’re compelled to wonder: Is there life out there, and if so, what does it look like? This article delves into the ongoing search for extraterrestrial life as we explore the scientific endeavors, historical theories, possible challenges as well as the massive implications of discovering life beyond Earth. The Fermi Paradox: Where Is Everybody? One of the most intriguing questions in the search for extraterrestrial life is encapsulated in the Fermi Paradox, named after the Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi. The paradox arises from the contrast between the high probability of extraterrestrial civilizations existing in the vast universe and the lack of evidence or contact with such civilizations. It is named after Enrico Fermi because he famously posed the question, “Where is everybody?” during a casual conversation in 1950, highlighting the apparent contradiction. Given the age of the universe and the sheer number of potentially habitable planets, it seems statistically unlikely that Earth would be the only planet to develop intelligent life. Yet, despite decades of searching, we have found no definitive proof of extraterrestrial life as of 2025. The Fermi Paradox has led to various hypotheses. Some have stated that advanced alien civilizations are just too far away for us to identify. Others propose that intelligent life tends to self-destruct before it can establish interstellar communication or travel. Another compelling theory is the “Dark Forest Hypothesis,” which suggests that civilizations remain silent and hidden out of fear. In this scenario, the universe is likened to a dark forest, where every civilization is a hunter with a loaded gun, choosing to stay silent to avoid detection by others who may pose a threat. This chilling perspective posits that any contact between civilizations could be inherently dangerous, leading to mutual destruction. Consequently, this could be the reason why we haven’t encountered any other civilizations—they might be intentionally avoiding contact in order to survive. There are also theories that we ourselves may be deliberately avoiding contact, or that extraterrestrial life may be so different from us that we are simply unable to recognize it. This paradox fuels our search, driving scientists to explore every possibility from the most conventional to the most speculative. The Habitable Zone: Earth-Like Planets and Beyond The search for extraterrestrial life begins with finding planets that could potentially support life. These planets are often located in what is known as the “habitable zone” or the “Goldilocks zone“—a region around a star where the temperature is just right for liquid water to exist. Liquid water is considered essential for life as we know it, thus making these zones prime targets for exploration. In recent times, the revelation of exoplanets (planets that are found outside our solar system) has reshaped our understanding of the cosmos. The Kepler Space Telescope, launched in 2009, has identified thousands of exoplanets. Many of which reside in the habitable zones of their stars. Among these, some Earth-sized planets have been discovered which has sparked excitement about the possibility of finding life. However, the existence of water alone does not guarantee life; other factors, such as atmospheric composition and geological activity, also play essential roles. Yet, the focus on Earth-like conditions may be limiting our search. Life on Earth has shown incredible adaptability, thriving in extreme environments like deep-sea hydrothermal vents, acidic lakes and frozen tundras. This suggests that life elsewhere could exist in forms and under conditions very different from what we expect. As a result, astrobiologists are broadening their search criteria, considering the possibility of life in subsurface oceans on moons like Europa and Enceladus or even in the methane lakes of Titan. The Role of SETI: Listening to the Stars The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) represents one of the most iconic efforts to detect alien life. SETI focuses on identifying signals or communications from intelligent civilizations. Using powerful radio telescopes, scientists listen for patterns in the noise of the universe that could indicate the presence of an advanced alien civilization. Since its inception in the 1960s, SETI has scanned countless stars and frequencies, yet it has not found a clear signal that can be attributed to extraterrestrial intelligence. Despite this, the search continues, driven by the possibility that intelligent alien civilizations might use radio waves to communicate across the vast distances of space. The lack of success so far does not deter scientists; instead, it motivates them to refine their techniques and consider new possibilities, such as the detection of laser signals or other non-radio forms of communication. SETI also faces significant challenges. The sheer vastness of space means that the chances of our instruments being pointed in the right direction at the right time are incredibly slim. Furthermore, the signals we are searching for might be incredibly weak or distorted by cosmic interference. Despite these obstacles, SETI remains a symbol of our collective hope that we are not alone in the universe. Life on Mars: A Neighborly Search Mars has long been a focal point in the search for extraterrestrial life, largely due to its proximity and similarities to Earth. Early observations of Mars revealed features that some believed to be artificial canals, leading to speculation about intelligent life on the planet. While these canals turned out to be optical illusions, the interest in Mars as a potential home for life has never waned. In recent decades, robotic missions to Mars have provided valuable data about the planet’s history and environment. The discovery of ancient riverbeds, polar ice caps, and seasonal methane emissions suggest that Mars may have once had conditions suitable for life. Today, missions like NASA’s Perseverance Rover are actively searching for signs of past life such
Jurassic World Meets the Unknown: Dinosaurs & Mystery Beasts of the Congo Basin
As Jurassic World: Rebirth rocks movie theaters by storm this Summer 2025, a hidden region in Africa has been brewing its own Jurassic World-esque scenario since primordial times. This region is rumored to be teeming with mysterious living dinosaurs and other strange reptilian creatures in its wake. This place, in a way, is like Jurassic World in real life. Welcome to the Congo Basin—known as the “Lungs of Africa”—an essential rainforest for our planet. The Congo Basin, along with the Earth’s other critical rainforests like the Amazon in South America, have an important role in reducing carbon dioxide emissions on a global scale; helping regulate Earth’s climate conditions. In addition, the Congo Basin is home to a vast array of endangered flora and fauna ranging from majestic gorillas to delicate endemic orchids, making it one of our planet’s most vital ecological treasures. While the Basin is a sanctuary for many animals that we’re familiar with today; this place is also home to primal myths and memories of saurian beasts thought to echo Earth’s prehistoric past. Sit tight, dear reader, for we’ll explore these rumored living dinosaurs pronto. Might of the Mokele-Mbembe “One Who Stops the Flow of Rivers” is what the name Mokele-Mbembe means to the local Bantu peoples of the Congo Basin. Often described as a massive herbivore resembling a sauropod dinosaur (think Brontosaurus or Diplodocus), Mokele-Mbembe is said to dwell in the remote swamps, rivers and dense jungles. It is in the Congo Basin’s wetlands where the Mokele-Mbembe has dominion in, as local folklore suggests that the creature is so territorial that it would attack full-grown hippopotami and humans alike. This enigmatic creature has captivated imaginations for centuries, with its origins rooted deep in both oral traditions and speculative accounts. The earliest recorded references to the long-necked cryptid date back to the 18th century, when European missionaries and explorers documented unusual stories spoken by the indigenous peoples of the region. These accounts are often filtered through the lens of colonial curiosity, but the accounts depicted a creature of astonishing scale and power; inspiring debates about the survival of prehistoric life in hidden corners of the Earth. Throughout the 20th century, multiple expeditions sought tangible proof to confirm the sauropod cryptid’s existence. Cryptozoologists and researchers alike braved the harsh environment of the Congo Basin with the attempt to gather anecdotes, sightings and even alleged footprints. Despite the intrigue, no concrete scientific confirmation of the creature’s existence has emerged, leaving Mokele-Mbembe still in the realm of legend as of 2025. In local oral traditions, Mokele-Mbembe is sometimes viewed as a guardian spirit that protects the sanctity of waterways and warding off external threats. Others see it as an ancestral echo of Earth’s prehistoric epochs—a living relic that bridges the ancient past and present. Whether interpreted as a symbol of nature’s mysteries or a literal inhabitant of the Congo’s vast wilderness, Mokele-Mbembe continues to inspire wondrous exploration. After all, this creature has gained popularity in recent memory into the pantheon of famous cryptids alongside Bigfoot and Nessie. Rage of the Emela-Ntouka Translating to “Killer of Elephants” in the local Lingala Bantu language, this enigmatic creature is often described as a rhinoceros-like animal with a bulk size rivaling that of an elephant’s. Its most distinctive feature is a single prominent horn on its head, which is said to make it capable of disemboweling even the largest elephants in the region—an act central to its fearsome reputation. The Emela-Ntouka first gained Western attention in the mid-20th century, largely due to reports documented by Lucien Blancou, a French wildlife inspector. Blancou described local tales of a large creature feared by indigenous peoples for its aggressive nature. In the 1980s, renowned cryptozoologist Dr. Roy Mackal led expeditions into the Likouala swamps, with his goal of searching for Mokele-Mbembe. At the same time during his trek, Mackal met up with local informants who then introduced him to the legend of the Emela-Ntouka. The informants described it as a semiaquatic horned beast with characteristics similar to ceratopsian dinosaurs like Centrosaurus; a smaller cousin to the famed dinosaur Triceratops. Like the Centrosaurus, the cryptid sported similar horn structures, though this theory faced skepticism due to the absence of a frilled neck according to eyewitness accounts of the Emela-Ntouka. Others speculate that the cryptid is rather an overgrown extinct rhino or horned mammal rather than a saurian, but the ceratopsian theory remains the most popular belief. Local traditions portray the Emela-Ntouka as both a guardian of the region and a deadly threat. Indigenous communities, particularly the Aka Pygmies, describe it as fiercely territorial, willing to attack humans and other animals that encroach upon its domain. Its behavior is framed within a cultural context, where it is respected as a powerful force of nature, embodying the untamed spirit of the Central African swamps. Tyranny of the Kasai Rex The Kasai Rex is a cryptid believed to be a carnivorous dinosaur or mega sized lizard, reported to be lurking in the Kasai Valley of the Congo. Legend of this saurian emerged in 1932, when a plantation owner of Swedish descent named John Johanson (alternatively spelled Johnson) provided the first detailed account to the West. According to Johanson, he and his servant stumbled upon the creature while traveling through the Kasai Valley. As the story goes, both men witnessed the enormous beast emerge from the vegetation to attack a rhinoceros, before tearing its limb apart with a single powerful bite. Johanson claimed the creature measured approximately 13 meters (or approximately 43 feet) in length, featured reddish scales with dark stripes, and had thick hind legs built for speed. The most infamous aspect of this legend lies in the photograph Johanson allegedly captured during the encounter, depicting a large lizard feeding on the carcass of a rhinoceros. However, this image was later exposed as a hoax, created by superimposing a Komodo dragon onto a photograph of a rhino. Critics have argued that the story itself is likely fabricated given its inconsistencies, including
Something Fishy Going On: Rumors of the Furry Trouts
Things are gonna get quite fishy—or rather furry—in this most curious story time of an article. Let us first dive deep into the reflective waters of North America’s lakes and rivers where Nature presents us with a wealth of wonders. Hidden beneath the waters exists a tale as peculiar as it is charming: that of the fur-bearing trout, or furry trout for convenience’s sake. A creature seemingly torn between aquatic grace and the rugged insulation of a snow-dwelling mammal. An animal that has utterly captured the imaginations of storytellers and skeptics alike for decades. Origins of the Myth The furry trout’s story begins in the winter landscapes of the northern hemisphere. A peculiar blend of practicality and whimsy gave rise to this cryptid. The cold waters of Canada and the United States seemed to demand a fish that could brave their icy clutches with the warmth of a mammal. Thus, the fur-bearing trout came to life in the collective imagination of trappers and hunters. One of the earliest mentions of this marvel harks back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when travelers and settlers spun tales of trout adorned with lush fur coats. It was whispered that these creatures emerged from particularly frigid environments, where evolution had granted them a pelt as protection against the biting cold. Some rumours even suggest that the fish would shed their furs during hotter seasons, only to be furry again when winter’s coming. Letters and anecdotes began circulating, with some accounts even claiming to have sighted these trout in regions such as Montana and Newfoundland. One rather strange (also hilarious) account came in 1929, Montana Wildlife featured an article by J.H. Hicken, who took the tale a step further. He claimed that when caught, the sudden temperature difference between the cold water and warm air caused the trout to spontaneously explode, leaving behind a ready-to-cook fish and a perfectly intact pelt. A Nordic Cousin: The Icelandic Loðsilungur Far across the Atlantic, in the icy streams of Iceland, swims a creature that’s equally enigmatic: the Loðsilungur. This fascinating cousin to the fur-bearing trout inhabits the folklore of Iceland, where the harsh subarctic environment often blurs the lines between fact and legend. Described as a trout with a distinctive, hairy exterior, the Loðsilungur is said to roam the freezing streams and lakes, its fur serving as insulation against the bitter cold. Unlike its North American counterpart, tales of the Loðsilungur are often intertwined with warnings. Local myths suggest that eating this furry fish brings about bad luck or even illness, making it a creature more revered than sought after. Much like Iceland’s otherworldly landscapes, the Loðsilungur invites both wonder and a touch of caution—reminding us how deeply entwined nature and storytelling are in human culture. The Mold-Aging Connection Oddly enough, the culinary world offers an unexpected bridge between fact and folklore. Mold-aging tuna—a refined culinary art from Japan that results in the formation of a fur-like, velvety mold on the fish’s surface—provides an intriguing modern parallel to the fur-bearing trout. While the mold in this process serves the practical purpose of enhancing flavor, its furry appearance is a visual echo of cryptid tales. Is it possible that early observers mistook mold-covered fish in their raw or cured states as evidence of fur-bearing creatures? Additionally, this fur-like appearance offers an alternate scientific explanation for the mythos of these shaggy fish. Fungal growths, such as the Saprolegnia species, can afflict freshwater fish, creating a woolly appearance reminiscent of fur. While these growths are a sign of disease rather than adaptation, they could easily have inspired imaginative accounts among early settlers or fishermen unfamiliar with such phenomena. Infectious mold could also be the culprit behind the Loðsilungur’s cautionary lore if you think about it. Rational Explanations Of course, every tale—no matter how wondrous—invites skepticism. Could a fish genuinely evolve such a feature? Biologists, understandably, take a more measured approach. The fur-bearing trout is often explained and even at times exposed as a lighthearted hoax. Some specimens displayed in museums or tourist traps were, in fact, ordinary trout cleverly adorned with rabbit fur by enterprising pranksters. Furthermore, there is also an element of mistaken identity. As mentioned above, fungal infections can produce a bizarre, woolly appearance, which might easily have been misunderstood by those encountering such afflicted fish. Whether through fungal growth or culinary inspiration, it is remarkable how observations of nature and creative interpretation can intertwine to shape enduring folklore. The Role of Folklore The question then pops up: why create such a legend? Herein lies the beauty of human imagination. The fur-bearing trout became a symbol of the rugged wilderness, a testament to the ability of life to adapt and survive. It resonated with the minds of those living in remote, untamed regions—where the line between reality and folklore often blurred. In addition, the tale served as a tool for humor. Travelers and locals alike delighted in spinning yarns about these fantastical creatures, often as a jest aimed at credulous outsiders. This was not merely a tale for amusement but a form of cultural bonding, a shared in-joke among communities. Speculative Wonders However, one cannot help but indulge in speculation. What if the fur-bearing trout were real creatures? Imagine the evolutionary pathways it might have taken—perhaps descending from ancestors who ventured into the chilliest streams, necessitating some form of thermal regulation. Could its fur also function as camouflage, blending with the mossy rocks and frothy rapids of its environment? Such a creature would occupy a fascinating niche in the ecosystem. Predators would face a unique challenge in penetrating its furry defenses, while the trout itself might develop curious feeding habits, perhaps relying on insulating streams of hot springs for sustenance. Cultural Impact The furry trout—and its Icelandic cousin, the Loðsilungur—has left an indelible mark on pop culture. From postcards to tourist attractions, these cryptids have been immortalized in playful imagery. Their allure lies in their implausibility—at once a tribute to nature’s resilience and a reminder
What’s All This About Hidden Megastructures Under the Great Pyramid?
Recently there has been a bit of a kerfuffle around ancient Egypt. Three new royal tombs have been uncovered in as many weeks, and that’s something of a big deal when the last one we found was Tutankhamun’s in 1922. The latest news comes from a group of three researchers, Corrado Malanga, Armando Mei and Filippo Biondi. Using a novel approach involving tomography (the use of penetrating X-rays to analyze and reconstruct the interiors of solid objects) they have announced the discovery of unknown and enormous structures deep underneath the Great Pyramid of Giza. Astonishing stuff, right? According to the team these structures disappear into the bowels of the Earth, extending some two kilometers below ground level. Centered around Khufu’s Great Pyramid, the largest of the three at Giza, these form something they describe as “a vast area of non-natural constructions following complex geometries.” Elsewhere they refer at least eight vertical cylinders, staggeringly huge and in two groups of four with “spiral staircases” winding around the outside, rising from two “cubic structures” deep underground. If true this would be a staggering revelation: nothing remotely like this has ever been seen before. But that is a pretty big “if” and it is fair to say that these claims do not stand up to much scrutiny. Firstly, nothing released by the team relating to these finds has been peer-reviewed. This comes from the “trust me bro” end of the research spectrum. Not that this is necessarily a problem, and to be fair this new claim builds on peer-reviewed papers published by members of the team in the past which demonstrate how the ground-penetrating technology should work. Tomography is a pretty well-established technique already in use in several other fields, as well. This should all check out. Nor have they just pointed their equipment at the ground and instantly found these vast, deep, artificial things. Back in 2022 Biondi and Malanga tested their approach by using it to look inside the Great Pyramid itself, and compare what their X-rays found against what we know to be inside. They claimed it was a success, but looking at their results we are afraid that we don’t see it. Like the Second Amendment, it only shows what its advocates say it does if you leave part of it out. The team’s results seems to indicate large unknown voids inside the pyramid which we know aren’t there, and misses famous interior spaces that we know definitely are. Nor did anyone offer an explanation for this conveniently selective vision. And if anything this new announcement has pulled things into even murkier waters. You see, in finding the new underground structures the team used the same approach as before, but employed AI to analyze the results. It is AI, not the researchers, that has found these things. We are ATH are not big fans of AI, our tagline being For Humans By Humans and all that. There is no denying it has analytical uses, but in this case there is no way of testing its conclusions. It is just a big black box which is telling us it thinks there are megastructures, but which won’t tell us why. This is not reassuring stuff. There are further worries when you check the academic pedigrees of the researchers who have made this announcement. Corrado Malanga has in the past espoused a theory of what he calls “Global Alien Interference” where parasitical aliens abduct humans to use their souls for battery power. Alarm bells are ringing. Finally, there is no explanation at all from any source as to what these megastructures might be. They almost certainly cannot be man-made, there is no way we could have build such enormous structures so long ago. So here we are again, talking about ancient aliens. Perhaps these guys are right, or perhaps they will use this publicity to secure the funding they will probably seek for follow-up research from investors who just want to believe. But it is fair to say that our conclusions are rather different, and until we see something peer-reviewed we’ll join the rest of the scientific community in rejecting this “discovery” as trash. Header Image: What megastructures lie under the Great Pyramid of Giza? Feels like none, could it be none? Source: Unknown Author / CC BY-SA 2.5.
How Did a Volcano Turn This Roman’s Brain to Glass?
In 79 AD the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed by an enormous volcanic eruption. The devastation caused by the eruption of Vesuvius went on for two days, burying the two towns under superheated ash and mud. The destructive power of Vesuvius was estimated to be some 100,000 times greater than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Over 20,000 people lived in the area surrounding the volcano, and the remains of over 1,500 have been found to date in the two towns. Typically it is not entirely fair to call these remains “bodies” as they are rather the hollows in the ash layer where the people fell as they ran for their lives. Over a thousand casts have been made of these bodies, their contorted poses of fear and desperation bringing a grim immediacy to the tragedy. However not all the bodies were preserved in this way, and the intense heat and pressure caused by the volcanic eruption led to some unusual finds, and some that are downright inexplicable. Perhaps the most famous of these is the man whose brain was turned to glass. Yep, you heard that right. Found amidst the bodies in Herculaneum was a young man in his bed in the Collegium Augustalium who had been killed by the eruption. But something had happened at the end which wrought unknown chemical changes in his brain. The result was not some perfect replica of a human brain made of glass to be sure. However the presence of glassy material inside a human skull is a fact that cannot simply be ignored, and a new study published in Nature from a team led by Guido Giordano of Roma Tre university may just have an explanation. First, the facts. We know that glass can form naturally on Earth, under an unusual set of circumstances where liquid cools at a certain rate, is given time to relax and therefore avoids crystallization. Typically this needs to occur for specific temperatures, depending on the composition of the cooling material. We also know that the human brain can be turned to glass artificially, if you really want to do that sort of thing. But because organic tissues contain liquid water at room temperature this can only work if the brain is cooled to well below freezing. The temperature gap between volcanic magma and freezing water is about as extreme as you can manage on our planet. It should, therefore, be impossible for the eruption of Vesuvius to cause this change. The heat from the ash should have raised the man’s body temperature to the point where the contents of his skull would have returned to soft material, and been burned. But in this single instance this did not occur. Instead portions of the man’s brain turned to obsidian-like glass. Detailed scans with an electron microscope reveal a network of neurons, axons and other neural structures, perfectly preserved. How did this happen? It should, according to our understanding of such things, be impossible; a human brain has never been found preserved in this way before. The answer seems to be in the rate at which the body cooled. Most bodies in the eruption were encased in ash from the pyroclastic flows off the volcano, but this one was not. Instead it was exposed to the air and able to cool at a rapid rate. The team have constructed the most likely scenario that caused this formation. The man was killed by a fast moving, very hot ash cloud which enveloped him but which did not penetrate to the core of his body. However the body was only buried in a few centimeters of ash and, as the cloud dissipated, this allowed for rapid cooling. This is more than a historic curio. Understanding this process at such high temperatures has potential ramifications for our understanding of material science, forensic biology and volcanology. But for now, we have an explanation for the Roman whose brain turned to glass. It was highly unlikely, it required a very specific sequence of events, but it seems that we finally understand how such a thing is even possible. Header Image: The formation of glass inside this Roman’s brain could only come from a very specific sequence of events, but this new study has confirmed that it is, at least, possible. Source: UnexpectedToy / Public Domain.
The Non-Existent Secret Alien Base Hidden off the California Coast
At the end of 2024 there was a rash of sightings of purported UFOs in the United States. Social media filled up with blurry footage (and it is, of course, always blurry footage) or strange lights in the sky. For the main this footage is easy to pick apart. Aside from anything else a lot of the lights are either single dots, lacking in any detail and therefore entirely beyond scrutiny, or clusters of lights which, if you take a step back, are clearly private or commercial aircraft. For a start the footage shows red and green lights at the extremities of the craft, as mandated by the FAA. It is unlikely that alien craft would follow United States regulations to the letter, but civil aircraft obviously would. And then there are the various attempts to obscure the true origin of what is being filmed. Aside from the footage being blurry, it is almost always without sound, shaky and unclear, and invariably at night because such a wild misidentification could never hold up to scrutiny in the day. Still, it beats all the CGI footage from the last few years, and at least what is being filmed here is “real” rather than entirely made up. But as long as there is karma to farm on Reddit there will be attention seekers looking to surround themselves with gullible idiots. And to be fair to the observers and commentators, there does appear to be something going on off the east coast of the United States. There are an awful lot of drones of an indeterminate origin in the sky, and what they are doing is also uncertain. But this latest rash of “UFO” footage has churned up all the old stories from the past about aliens walking among us, and the various fanciful things that are associated with the “wouldn’t it be cool if” school of historical theory. It seems that a certain portion of the internet simply wants to believe. So, let us for a moment humor these experts on UFOs. If these are aliens, intent on buzzing around the skies of New Jersey, where have they come from? The answer, according to many such theorists, is well known in the community: a hidden alien base, underwater and off the coast of California. And there have been claims about this base for decades. Terror From The Deep The idea of an alien base near San Diego and Baja California is nothing new. It is surprisingly hard to find the start of this rumor, but it seems to concern an unusual object on the edge of the Pacific shelf, some 250 km from the coast of North America and near the island of Guadalupe. The underwater object is vast, it is flat topped and it appears to jut out from the North American plate into the deeper water to the west. It is unarguably a prominent underwater feature and equally it has an unusual physical appearance, looking like a giant block with a level top. The problem with the identification is this: what you have just read above is the entirety of the “evidence” for the existence of this base. This is the flimsy basis on which this entire theory of an alien presence has been built. Nobody, at least nobody who claims it is an alien base, has gone to check for sure. Why do people choose to build such a theory on such little evidence? The reasons are myriad, and actually much more interesting than this underwater feature. Most people interested in this story are merely curious observers, but let us consider the true believers and the motivations which might lead someone to claim that such a wildly implausible story is true. In the absence of actual evidence, a lot of it comes down to the certainty in the mind of the individual. If they believe, truly believe that this is an alien base, then they believe themselves to be in possession of secret knowledge of which only a select few are aware. This elevates the individual in their own mind: only they know the truth. Such a individual becomes locked in a self-reinforcing spiral as they champion their alternative belief. The more they espouse this belief in defiance of what everyone else says is true, the more embarrassing it would be if they were ultimately proven wrong, and the less likely they are to accept any evidence which contradicts their preconceived notion. Then there are the people who do not believe, but pretend to do so. These usually take the form of “experts” who, through pretending to know something, find themselves the center of attention, a beguiling position to be sure. They are feeding the masses with disinformation for their own self-importance. These are the fakers, who either wilfully misinterpret evidence or outright manufacture it, all to keep themselves in the spotlight. This can be for financial gain but it often isn’t, as it is frequently enough to be seen as an authority on a topic. Bragging rights and all that. Ultimately these people find themselves in the same trap as the believers, but with the added dangers of their fraud being uncovered. They cannot admit their fakery to anyone, lest the truth get out and ruin their reputation. Undersea locations hold a particular charm for such theories. Such locations are not easily checked to confirm or deny the claims, and are unfamiliar landscapes which lend themselves to be exotic and the unknown, places where aliens could be hiding because humans don’t go there. This is why some believe there is an ancient fortification off the coast of Japan, or a road through the Caribbean. This is why some claim the sunken bridge between India and Sri Lanka was not a geological feature, but in fact built by an army of monkeys. Then, finally, there is the sheer implausibility of alien life being present on Earth at all, at once intelligent enough to build an undersea base and
21 Grams, Artificial Intelligence, and the Path to Robot Suffrage
In 1901 a doctor from Massachusetts found himself facing a puzzling question. The doctor, Duncan MacDougall, wished to reconcile the two major influential factors in his life: medicine along with the science that underpinned it, and religion. Put another way, MacDougall both understood and did not understand the human body. He knew much about its limbs and muscles, its nerve endings and the function of its internal organs, and yet he found himself at a loss to explain the whole in the same way he could its parts. He was, and is, in good company. We are often highly dismissive of religion, and while that is arguably entirely fair given the coercive superstructure which stands atop its web of fiction there are questions which remain for which only religion has an answer. And these are the big questions. What happens to us after we die? Where were we before we were born? What is our place in the universe, and are we special or commonplace? And, perhaps most pressingly of all, what are we? I know, for example, that I am conscious. I am aware of my surroundings. And yet nobody can point to the part of the human anatomy and say “that is what gives me consciousness, and this is the mechanism that generates it.” MacDougall was looking for a scientific basis for this, he was searching for a tangible sign of a human soul. His work in nursing homes placed him close to the dying, and he determined to measure them at the point of death: if a soul was real, it might have weight. And if a patient’s weight decreased at the moment of death, might that be the soul leaving the body? His famous result whereby a soul is popularly recorded as weighing 21 grams is not widely accepted, but in his search he touched on something we fundamentally do not know, something others have also recognized. What, in essence, are we? And once this question is tabled, it leads to some very interesting ideas indeed. Everyone’s a Robot Perhaps the best place to begin is with French philosopher Rene Descartes and his famous observation cogito ergo sum. Descartes and MacDougall were looking at the same problem, each within their own framework, and Descartes’s conclusion was the answer of a philosopher: I think, therefore I am. Descartes dovetailed life and consciousness into awareness: he knew he was real because he was aware of his reality, and that of others around him. But herein lies a problem, or rather a limitation with his thinking: he knew he was real, but this line of thought offered no such comfort for those around him. This is a branch of philosophy known as solipsism, which effectively boils down to the fact that we cannot tell how much of our surroundings are real. Just because we know we are real doesn’t mean we can be sure that anyone else is. They could be animatronics masquerading as human, or delusions our brain feeds us. We could be living in the Matrix right now, and in fact some argue we almost certainly are, none the wiser. For the vast majority of human history this didn’t really matter: we had more pressing things with which to be getting on. For almost all of the rest of history we may not have had an answer, but at least there was a clear line to which we could point that divided the conscious and the inanimate. But this line is changing. To this day there are many who argue that animals are not conscious, even when this is clearly undermined by the evidence of our own eyes and ears. Why else the difference in treatment between animals we consider pets and those we consider food? We prefer not to think of a chicken as conscious because its flesh is delicious, but if we accept the world around us as real then it must be: it has all the faculties we have, al the components for a soul as we do. Those who reject this viewpoint usually point to intelligence as the defining factor, and we are certainly more intelligent than chickens. But this concept, that consciousness is an emergent property of intelligence, comes with some serious baggage. In 1949 the English mathematician and codebreaker Alan Turing created his famous “Turing Test.” Under the rules of the test, a human was placed in a conversation and had to ascertain, based solely on the content of the conversation, whether they were speaking to another human or a machine imitating a person. If they spoke to a machine and could not tell it was not a human, that machine had passed the test. In the last few years we have reached a point with Artificial Intelligence where we interact with machines which can pass this test. Nobody thinks these programs are conscious, even though we name them as such, but the solipsists would argue that we don’t know anyone else is conscious, either. The fact is, we are as baffled as MacDougall was. Absent any evidence as to what consciousness actually is, we are all guessing, whether we think chickens are conscious, or computer programs, or nobody but ourselves. So, should we have “computer rights” in the same way as we have animal rights? Should “artificial” intelligence be given the same rights as “natural” intelligence? After all, it is clear we can’t tell the difference between the two, at least for those that pass Turing’s test. It may seem ridiculous to give AI rights, but it would not be the first time in history we have disenfranchised a portion of our population who, despite clearly being able to rationalize and act as we do, we have decided to be lesser. In creating such new intelligence in our machines and them treating them as lesser beings we have rediscovered slavery. We are only at the very start of our journey with non-human intelligence, but our choices in how we
Pellagra: The Mystery Disease that Brought Monsters to Europe
Pellagra is a disease of which most people have never heard. It is understood today, and treatment is straightforward; in fact, nobody needs to suffer form it at all. But it deserves a mention as a historical footnote because of what it did to Europe, and as an interesting study in how legends are formed. European folklore can be broadly divided into two sections, both of which are monstrous. Most such tales involve the ancient monsters of the wilds, usually playful rather than outright dangerous but still potentially deadly to the unwary. These types of creatures are the manifestations of how dangerous the world can be away from the safety of community and civilization. These monsters are everything you might expect: they cannot harm you if you stay on the path, they are more dangerous in the winter than the summer, they are elusive and most people never even see them. But the other type of folklore, the monsters that live among us, are not so easily understood. These are the vampires and werewolves of Europe, the creatures who take on a human form and who are based on witness evidence, not giving human traits to natural processes. These come from direct experience of individual cases, and this is what makes them fundamentally different. It is relatively straightforward to see how forest spirits come to be, but less so to understand stories of the dead rising from their graves. In these instances the legends are always based upon multiple cases, all of which add something to the myth until it gains a life of its own and becomes much more than any one story. Werewolves for example exist as a loose collection of stories from around the world of animal predation, cannibalism and madness, all of which contribute to the myth in part, but never in full. Vampires are the same, and it can be an interesting exercise in unpicking where these tales arise. Before the high gothic of Stoker’s strange Count Dracula, before the rumours of noblewomen bathing in human blood, the vampire in its original form shares a lot with the zombie, a shambling undead figure on the fringes of society. Such individuals are not cursed but most often diseased and misdiagnosed. A while werewolves and vampires date back beyond the medieval period to the European Dark Ages, for Renaissance Europe at least we have a solid understanding of where such instances came from. And it starts with the New World, and a disease called pellagra. Poison in Your Food The New World had many bounteous treasures to share with Europe. Its foodstuffs and other flora wildly expanded our staples: these were the lands of the potato, of tobacco and of maize. And of these it may be the last which casts the longest shadow today. Maize is among the most cultivated crops on the planet, more than wheat or rice, a product which finds its way into almost every culinary culture. It is hardy, it grows quickly, and it produces a corn rich in nutrients. This was quickly recognized by European traders who took advantage of the new routes to the New World. Maize was brought back the Europe where it thrived, its value as a cheap crop seeing it become a standard foodstuff for the poor. But hidden within the maize was a killer, something of which Europe was not aware. Corn had a fatal flaw, a hidden gap in its nutrients which could prove deadly for those who depended on it too much in their diet. This disease was known as pellagra. Pellagra is clearly understood today, it derives from a lack of niacin in the body. Niacin, also known as Vitamin B3, comes from two places: either it is ingested directly from a wide variety of foodstuffs or synthesized within the body by the amino acid tryptophan. What was not known to Renaissance Europe was that niacin was only present in small quantities in maize. Furthermore, maize is additionally a poor source of tryptophan, and therefore those who relied on maize for a majority of their caloric intake would develop pellagra. Pre-Columbian societies of the New World understood this, and also understood how to prevent pellagra. Corn in South and Central American countries was specially treated using a process called nixtamalization. Maize was soaked in an alkaline solution before being prepared as a foodstuff. This caustic mixture acts to partially break down the corn, and as a result the niacin within the grain can be accessed by the human body. Maize treated in this way is entirely safe to eat. But the Europeans did not know about the need for nixtamalization. They brought this new foodstuff back with them unaware of its potential dangers. And for centuries they were none the wiser. So, where does the link to folklore and monsters fit in? Well, here are some of the symptoms of pellagra: facial swelling, especially around the tongue, skin damage particularly to the hands, sleeplessness, uncharacteristic aggression and disorientation, and an aversion to light. Not hard to see what that sounds like. There are even symptoms which provide a neat, and gothic touch. Perhaps the most consistent and diagnostic symptom is a distinctive rash around the collar. Is it too far a stretch to see this as proof of something unholy, blistered skin exactly where a crucifix is ordinarily worn? Nor does pellagra kill quickly: sufferers can live for years before it destroys them. These disfigured people would spend that time either in seclusion, or more likely outcasts from society, living on the edges by whichever means they could. Here are our monsters, here are the werewolves and vampires shunning the light and preying on the weak simply to survive. Here are the creatures from myth, newly apparent in the poorest societies where dependence on maize was at its highest. This is, of course, not to say that such sufferers were truly monsters. It is however clear that the disease was misunderstood, and
Ichor, Life Blood of the Immortals
It is fair to say that gods are a little different. Whilst most creation myths have mankind created in the image of their immortal, divine benefactors, that image is rarely more than skin deep. True, sometimes gods are wildly different, but in these cases it is usually to make a point about their godhood. The Hindu and Egyptian pantheons for instance have multiple animal-headed gods because, in part, these gods are said to be associated with aspects of these animals. You can bet that the Egyptian god of the Nile looks like a crocodile, for instance. But even when the gods appear mortal outwardly, this is not their true form. Greek gods, for example, were shapeshifters all, and while Zeus could appear as a mortal man and walk amongst his people (and the less said about what he was doing that for, the better) he could also appear as a bull, or a swan, or a golden shower (not like that). But the gods, above all, were emphatically not like us. They do not eat food and drink, instead their meals consist of nectar and ambrosia. And under their skin, in whatever passes for their circulatory system, they did not have blood, but something altogether weirder: ichor. Today the word generally holds science fiction associations with alien and inhuman life, and this is exactly why. Above all, it was this fluid which set the gods apart, and much can be learned about why they were so different and what precisely they were, under their human guise. What was ichor, then? And what did it mean to be a Greek god? The Ethereal Fluid Firstly, what were the properties of ichor? For one, it was not of this earth, but specifically described as “ethereal”, the defining thing which meant that the Greek gods were “alive” in a totally different sense to man. It was in some respects the divine essence of the Greek gods: they were ichor, and the form which made them familiar to mankind was not their true being. But it was not only the gods who had ichor running through their veins. After all, it was not only the gods who were considered immortal in Greek myth: the Titans, primordial ancestors and enemies of the Gods of Olympus, also bled ichor. This emphasizes the key link between ichor and immortality. It is not just the divine who are immortal, but all those who bleed ichor. Ichor was also extremely dangerous, deadly to humans. Anyone who touched the liquid would be poisoned and die upon that instant. And the fact that this is mentioned tells you something else about the immortals of Greek mythology: they could bleed. Not just the Titans and other immortal monsters, either. We have stories of mortal men fighting gods in combat, and while besting them was almost always a step too far the gods could be, and sometimes were, wounded. We are told as much in specifics in Homer’s Iliad, when the goddess Aphrodite rushes to protect Aeneas, hero of Troy from a brutal attack from the Greek Diomedes. This drives Diomedes into a rage and he turns on Aphrodite, slicing at her wrist. As the goddess recoils in pain, ichor springs forth from her wrist, driving back Diomedes. And Homer, helpfully, interjects and offers a quick gloss as to what is going in here which is both instructive and unexpectedly revealing. Ichor is, according to the Iliad, specifically linked to the gods’ diet. They eat ambrosia and drink nectar, and this is why they bleed ichor, which Homer describes literally as the same thing, as “ambrosia.” Homer goes further, making a specific link between the diet, the blood, and the gods’ immortality, suggesting that were the gods to eat as humans do they would bleed as humans do, and die from injuries as they do. These are interesting facts, particularly in that they suggest a route to godhood were you to stick to the right diet. But there is something even more telling underneath this, and it comes from the word Homer uses: the liquid is described as “ambroton.” This is a word with a double meaning. “A” means without and “brotos” means blood or other bodily fluids, the implication being that the wound was “without blood.” But “A” and the similar word “borotos” means “without mortality” and we might just have, in the moment of Homer’s cleverness, the source of the legend of ichor. This special fluid elsewhere gives life to lifelessness, animating great mechanical monsters and other dread beings. One of the oldest of Greek myths, predating the golden age of Homer, comes from the Minoans of ancient Crete and talks of Talos, the giant. Talos was a construct of sorts, made of bronze and powered by a single tube of ichor which ran along his spine. He guarded the island of Crete and was a match even for Jason and the Argonauts. It took the cunning of the witch Medea to finally defeat him, along with her knowledge of the gods and their ichor. Medea was able to remove a nail from Talos’s back, like a stopper from a bottle, and when the ichor gushed out onto the ground the bronze giant died. The implications of this are profound in terms of Greek mythology and the relative power of their gods. We have seen that the gods can be injured, and we have seen that beings of ichor can, if so injured, bleed to death. Does this affect the gods, too? Are they, like Tolkien’s elves, long lived but ultimately mortal beings? The answer is “sort of.” As mentioned above, the gods are not simply non-ageing humans with a different body chemistry. The link between ambrosia, ichor and the gods is not so much a link as a singularity. The life force of gods was ambrosia, and the magical substance which was called ambrosia going in and ichor coming out was in some way the gods themselves. It seems
The Wendigo: Native American Stuff of Nightmares
(The following article contains spoilers for the 2022 movie Prey) In 2022 the seventh movie in the Predator franchise was released. The movie, Prey, was in many ways similar to the 1987 original, although trading the steaming jungles of Central America for the Oklahoma plains and the wisecracking mercenaries for stoic Comanche was a surprising, and appealing twist. But once again we have an extraterrestrial descending from the skies to pick fights with the most dangerous adversaries they can find. Once again all pre-existing conflict is overruled as those caught in this monster’s sights struggle for their very survival, and once again it is ingenuity and preparedness which wins the day: all those who rush in to face the threat die, and quickly. The Predator once again has his bag of tricks, which (although more primitive, as the movie is set almost 300 years before the Arnold Schwarzenegger original) are functionally the same. This predator can still turn invisible, still collects the skulls of its defeated foes, still has an array of technically advanced weaponry, still has the famous thermal vision. Perhaps the biggest difference about the creature is in its appearance. This is not the Predator of the original films, this monster is leaner, its facial mandibles larger and more menacing, and its armor and equipment much more primitive, with a huge skull for a mask. In arriving at this new design, and especially given the surroundings, it seems that the filmmakers took inspiration from a Native American legend, something horrific which was said to stalk the plains and forests of North America. No ordinary creature, this monster was a cannibalistic horror which towered over ordinary men. The monster they called the Wendigo. The Evil of Possession First, a disclaimer: nobody is saying that the Wendigo is some extraterrestrial big game hunter. Nor are these legends associated with the Comanche in the movie. The Wendigo legends come from the Algonquian peoples to the north, not the Native Americans of the Great Plains. A Wendigo, according to legend, would never be sated and would prey on humans, growing with each victim that it consumed until it towered over them. In appearance it was an emaciated giant, with skin stretched thin over a skull face, haunting the fringes of settlements and picking off victims from the darkness. Such an appearance is understandable in the far north of the North American continent. The Wendigo is associated with the bitter cold of the winters, where exposure and starvation could drive people to desperate acts in the wilderness. For you see this was, in some legends at least, not a corporeal monster at all. The Wendigo was sometimes seen as an evil spirit, a monster of possession who would take over a person’s mind and drive them into madness, with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. Those who resorted to cannibalism in the extremes of winter were said to have been taken by the Wendigo. Far from a legend, this aspect was a recognized psychiatric illness, known as the Wendigo psychosis. There are many stories of those who, in extremis, resorted to cannibalism and it doing so lost their humanity. Nor were these the actions of sane men who were driven to such unspeakable acts out of a need to survive. The Wendigo psychosis is much more, a conviction that cannibalism is the only way to survive, a haunting madness borne out of the harsh conditions for which many were not prepared. Perhaps the most horrifying story of the Wendigo is that of Swift Runner, a Cree from the province of Alberta. He and his family, a wife and six children, were facing starvation in the unusually harsh winter of 1878. Things came to a head when, finally, Swift Runner’s eldest son died of starvation. Swift Runner turned on his family and killed them all, butchering them and eating them. What is most horrific of all is that he did so while only some 40km from help. Swift Runner and his family could have easily reached these emergency supplies and shelter, but he apparently chose not to do so. This was not some act of desperate survival, this was something much deeper. This is the third aspect which represents the Wendigo. It is not only the desperation which comes from harsh winters and extreme cold, it is not only the accompanying threat of starvation and the prospect that you may be doomed. The Wendigo is seen as, above all, a selfish being. It is willing to put itself above literally everything else, above friends and family, above its own humanity. A Wendigo is a monster because of how it behaves, as much as how it appears. The Algonquian peoples valued living in equilibrium with their surroundings. Although the idea that exploitation of the land only came to North America with the white man is a myth, the traditions of these first Americans speak of respect for the animals you hunt, and finding a harmony within nature. The Wendigo has fully rejected such traditions in favor of personal greed and selfishness, placing themselves above the good of those around them and the world in which they live. They choose to take what they can and such people contribute nothing to their community, for they are purely predatory and parasitic. This is perhaps the greatest parallel between the Wendigo and the Predator creature from Prey. This is a monster which kills without need, not for survival or necessity and only to prove a point to itself. Such monsters have no place in society. Header Image: Unlike most cryptids the Wendigo actually existed, at least in terms of a terrifying psychosis brought on by the isolating wilderness. Source: Aden Kowalski / CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Jersey Devil: Unpicking the History Behind the Mystery
Everybody’s heard of the Jersey Devil, the crazy-looking cryptid which haunts the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey. Said to resemble a screaming, flying kangaroo with an oversized horse’s head, for almost three centuries this weird monstrosity has terrified travelers on the remote tracks in the wilderness. The eastern seaboard of the United States seems filled with such strange creatures, each with their own legends and each usually with a prosaic explanation. You could be convinced that the Mothman is a blue heron, you could be convinced that the Goatman is a… goat, but when it comes to the Jersey Devil we are dealing with something a little different. Truth is, almost anything that spooked people alone in the wilds of the Pine Barrens was said to be the Jersey Devil. We know it flies because people have seen something flying, we know it has red eyes because other people have seen something with red eyes. It has hooves like a horse because hoofed tracks were seen nearby. But if one creature is responsible for all these disparate (and infrequent) sightings across the centuries, that creature must look strange indeed. And things are not helped by the hoaxes. Almost all sightings of this creature come from unreliable witnesses, either through their character or through circumstance. The reason the Devil is mainly seen at night, for example, is because one is much less likely to make an incorrect identification in the day. And the Pine Barrens has always historically been a dangerous place. There were plenty of bandits, outlaws and other hazards which caused the area to become notorious for disappearances, more victims of the Jersey Devil. But, unlike most other cryptids which are thought to be a remnant population or other undiscovered creature, the Jersey Devil is much more. This monster has its own origin story, and this may well be the key to unpicking the whole mystery. Mother Leeds and her Thirteen Children The truth is that the original Jersey Devil was not some giant flappy horse-faced monster at all. The name was first associated with a family, not because they were haunted by a creature but as a description of one of them. It was a dark and stormy night in 1735, and Jane Leeds was in labor. The child was her 13th, and the Leeds family was hard pressed to feed and clothe their existing children. According to the legend, in a moment of frustration upon discovery she was again pregnant, “Mother” Leeds had cried out, cursing the child as an unwanted “devil.” She would come to regret this when the child, initially born healthy, began to change. No sooner was the child born than it began to transform, sprouting hooves, wings and a tail, its’ head elongating into something resembling a goat. It flew around the room, attacking the occupants before escaping up the chimney and flying off into the night. Was there any truth to this story. There was a Leeds family in the area at exactly this time, and the parents Deborah and Japhet did indeed have at least twelve children: Japhet’s will, prepared in 1736, specifically references all twelve. However the story of a cursed thirteenth child turning into a monster and flying off into the Pine Barrens to live for the next 300 years is perhaps stretching things a little beyond credulity. From where then does this story come? It could be that the Leeds family, which at the time was prominent and powerful, had many local enemies who were willing to throw mud at their name in an effort to turn public opinion against them. This is the theory espoused by the historian Brian Regal, who believes that stories swirling around the family crystallized into a tale of a Jersey Devil. Regal however identifies another Leeds, Daniel Leeds, as the target of these stories. Leeds was the publisher of a popular almanac, and may have attracted the ire of another prominent politician and rival almanac publisher in the area at the time: Benjamin Franklin. Daniel Leeds had also found himself in trouble with the local population of Quakers. Leeds, himself a Quaker, had included astrological symbols in his almanac, and when confronted by local leaders over his “pagan” publication, had doubled down and published ever more esoteric and magical information. To the Quakers, this was indeed a man in league with the Devil. In 1700 the Quaker community published a pamphlet against Daniel Leeds, denouncing him as “Satan’s Harbinger” but this didn’t stop him, and later his son, from continuing to publish their almanac for the next thirty years. And from 1728 these publications included the Leeds family crest, featuring a wyvern: a two-legged, winged monster resembling a dragon. So the story seems to have originally come from a smear campaign against a prominent local publisher from his own community. This story, combined with the remote and inaccessible nature of the Pine Barrens, has led to every odd sighting or disappearance being associated with the local legend. Such incidents are always isolated, seen by few people, and always without evidence. It would be easy to simply write off the stories of the Jersey Devil as simple local folklore and rumor, except for what happened in 1909. In January of that year there were hundreds of sightings of something monstrous in southern New Jersey and around the nearby city of Philadelphia. All the reports were similar: a large, aggressive creature which appeared and attacked onlookers. A wave of panic swept the area, and groups of armed locals roamed the area guarding against attack and seeking the monster. Schools and businesses were closed and a reward was offered by the Philadelphia zoo for its capture. What was this creature? The sightings themselves led to many hoaxes, from people claiming to have seen the Devil to, amazingly, a kangaroo being equipped with metal claws and fake wings and being released into the wilds. It is near impossible to separate those who knowingly lied