El Chupacabra (Goat Sucker) is mostly associated with Latin American communities in the USA, Mexico, and Puerto Rico (where it was first reported). It is supposedly a heavy creature, the size of a small bear, with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail and it takes its name from the fact that it is supposed to attack animals and drink their blood – especially goats.
While the legend began around 1987, there are many similarities to the Vampire of Moca, the name given to an unknown creature to killed animals all over the small town of Moca in the 1970s. The vampire of Moca left the animals completely devoid of blood which had apparently been removed by a series of small circular cuts.
The most common description of Chupacabra is a lizard-like being, appearing to have leathery or scaly greenish-gray skin and sharp spines or quills running down its back. This form stands approximately 3 to 4 feet (1 to 1.2 m) high, and stands and hops in a similar fashion to a kangaroo. In at least one sighting, the creature hopped 20 feet (6 m). This variety is said to have a dog or panther-like nose and face, a forked tongue protruding from it, large fangs, and to hiss and screech when alarmed, as well as leave a sulfuric stench behind. When it screeches, some reports note that the chupacabra’s eyes glow an unusual red, then give the witnesses nausea. For some witnesses, it was seen with bat-like wings.
RELATED LEGENDS
In the Philippines, another legendary creature called the Sigbin shares many of the same descriptions as the Chupacabra. The recent discovery of the cat-fox in Southeast Asia suggests that it could also have been simply sightings of this once unknown animal.
The Peuchen of Chile also share similarities in their supposed habits, but instead of being dog-like they are described as winged snakes. This legend may have originated from the vampire bat, an animal endemic to the region.
A popular legend in New Orleans concerns a popular lovers’ lane called Grunch Road which was said to be inhabited by “grunches,” creatures similar in appearance to the Chupacabra.
During the analysis of the film footage of the assasination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, a mysterious woman was spotted. She was wearing a brown overcoat and a scarf on her head (the scarf is the reason for her name as she wore it in a similar style to Russian grandmothers – also called babushkas). The woman appeared to be holding something in front of her face which is believed to be a camera. She appears in many photos of the scene. Even after the shooting when most people had fled the area, she remained in place and continued to film. Shortly after she is seen moving away to the East up Elm Street. The FBI publically requested that the woman come forward and give them the footage she shot but she never did.
In 1970 a woman called Beverly Oliver came forward and claimed to be the Babushka Woman, though her story contains many inconsistencies. She is generally regarded as a fraud. To this day, no one knows who the Babushka Woman is or what she was doing there. More unusual is her refusal to come forward to offer her evidence.
This is one of most thrilling mystery till date, still unsolved
Loch Ness is the most voluminous fresh water lake in Great Britain. For centuries people have reported seeing a large creature living in the lake – the earliest account comes from the life of Saint Columba (565 AD). Although sightings of the creature on land around the loch reputedly date back to the sixteenth century, modern interest in the monster was sparked by a 22 July 1933 sighting, when Mr George Spicer and his wife saw ‘a most extraordinary form of animal’ cross the road in front of their car. They described the creature as having a large body (about 4 feet high and 25 feet long), and long, narrow neck, slightly thicker than an elephant’s trunk and as long as the 10-12 foot width of the road; the neck had a number of undulations in it. They saw no limbs because of a dip in the road obscuring the animal’s lower portion. It lurched across the road towards the loch some 20 yards away, leaving only a trail of broken undergrowth in its wake. Not only has the Loch Ness Monster been photographed repeatedly, it has even been caught on videotape – as recently as 2007, and on sonar equipment. Unfortunately, however, the footage and photos are never clear enough to give a definite answer as to what the creature is. Some speculate that it may be a plesiosaur that survived the rest of the dinosaur population. ST COLUMBA AND THE LOCH NESS MONSTER Adamnan’s Life of St Columba, written about a century after the event, tells us that in the year 565 CE the saint was on his way to visit a local ‘Pictish’ king, which required crossing the River Ness. By the shore he met some people burying a friend who, they said, had been attacked and killed by the monster in the waters. They had only just succeeded in rescuing his body from the beast.
‘The blessed man, on hearing this, was so far from being dismayed that he directed one of his companions to swim over and row across the ferry that was moored at the farther bank. And Lugne Mocumin hearing the command obeyed without the least delay, taking off all his clothes except his tunic and leaping into the water. But the monster lying at the bottom of the stream, so far from being satiated, was only roused for more prey. When it felt the water disturbed above by the man swimming, it suddenly rushed out and, giving an awful roar, darted after him with its mouth wide open, as the man swam in the middle of the stream. ‘Columba raised his holy hand while all the rest, brethren as well as strangers, were stupefied with terror. Invoking the name of God, he formed the saving sign of the cross in the air, and commanded the ferocious monster, saying,“Thou shalt go no further, nor touch the man; return with all speed.” ‘Then at the voice of the saint, the monster was terrified, and fled more quickly than if it had been pulled back with ropes, though it had just got so near to Lugne, as he swam, that there was not more than the length of a spear-staff between the man and the beast. ‘Then the brethren, seeing that the monster had gone back and that their comrade Lugne returned to them in the boat safe and sound, were struck with admiration, and gave glory to God in the blessed man. And even the barbarous heathens, who were present, were forced by the greatness of this miracle, which they themselves had seen, to magnify the God of the Christians.’ Chapter 28, Book II of the Life of Saint Columba by Adamnan, ninth Abbot of Iona TIM DINSDALE
Timothy Dinsdale, ARAeS (born 1924 in India, died December 1987) was famous as a seeker of the Loch Ness Monster. He attended King’s School, Worcester, served in the Royal Air Force and worked as an aeronautical engineer. He was survived by his wife, Wendy Dinsdale and four children. Tim believed Nessie was real, and he was eager to prove it. Dinsdale traveled to Loch Ness and went four days with no proof of her. By the fifth day, 23 April 1960, he was used to disappointment, but while he was having breakfast, he saw a large creature rolling and diving in the loch. Amazed by what he saw, he grabbed his video camera and his near fifty feet of film. By the time Dinsdale got out there, though, he only saw the hump swimming across the water with a powerful wake unlike that of a surface vessel. For nearly a minute, Dinsdale filmed the monster swimming across the loch. The grainy film is believed by some to be solid proof of the existence of the monster. JARIC analyzed it and believed it was an animate object. Some analyses have been done which suggests the footage is of a boat travelling across the loch, with an artifact that some claim is a man standing on the boat. He dedicated his life to obtaining further evidence, taking part in a total of 56 expeditions, many of them solo. Although he claimed to have later seen the monster’s head and neck on two occasions, he failed to obtain any more video footage. He also published several books on the subject. He is commemorated in the Dinsdale Memorial Award.
In the age of the internet, there are few things more annoying than the person who types everything as though there’s glue beneath the caps lock key. In the case of Vicki Walker, it turned out that she really liked typing out her e-mails in caps, and often in red colored fonts.
The funny part is that during the wrongful termination proceedings – which, by the way, she won – her former employer only produced one such e-mail. I can only imagine what would have happened if she had ended the e-mail with a smiley face as well.
The Flight Attendant Fired for Blogging
In this day and age, pretty much everyone has a blog. Your friends, your relatives – and if Disney Channel is to be believed, possibly even your dogs have blogs. So it should not have come as a surprise to anyone that Ellen Simonetti, a former flight attendant for Delta, also had a blog. I say
former because she was fired from that position precisely for having that blog.
Simonetti was fired in 2004 after her employers discovered her blog, entitled “Diary of a Flight Attendant” and decided they’d rather not have the world see her as a representative of Delta Airlines. And why, you ask? Well, that’s a good question. By all accounts, she did not defame the airline. In fact, Delta stated that they found photos of Simonetti in her Delta uniform inappropriate – specifically one photo in which part of her bra is visible. It seems that we’ve grown as a society: though sex appeal used to be the lone qualification for becoming a flight attendant, it can now get you fired just as easily.
The Coach Fired for Beating a Team 100-0
When you’re a basketball coach, your goal is to help your team win – preferably as comfortably as possible. But there’s apparently a strict definition of exactly how comfortable is too comfortable, as Micah Grimes found out in 2009. That was the year he guided his girl’s high school basketball team to a 100-0 victory over an opposing team, which was from an academy that specializes in helping kids with learning differences, such as dyslexia.
The Covenant School, where Grimes coached, is a private Christian school. It determined that running up the score was not “Christlike”, and therefore was an embarrassment to the school. Grimes refused to apologize, and people in attendance noted that spectators were egging the team on as they approached the 100-point mark.
The Waiter Fired for Stopping a Carjacking
Juan Canales, father of three, worked as a waiter in a Thai restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. One day at work, he noticed a commotion outside and saw that a woman was being carjacked by a knife wielding attacker. Putting his own welfare aside, Canales rushed outside and wrestled the carjacker to the ground, then waited for the police to arrive.
After saving this woman from being attacked – and possibly even saving her life – he was promptly fired by his employer. Apparently it was for the publicity he generated by rushing out to play the role of hero. After all, if there’s anything a restaurant owner hates, it’s good, free publicity.
The Lifeguards Fired for a Gangnam Style Parody
Gangnam Style ruins lives. We’ve all suspected as much since the viral video hit stateside, and now we have actual proof. Well, maybe it didn’t actually ruin any lives – but it sure did throw a wrench into a few, when 14 lifeguards in California were fired after a video surfaced online of them performing a funny parody of Gangnam Style called Lifeguard Style.
The problem, apparently, was that they were wearing city-issued lifeguard swimsuits and put this video together at the pool where they worked. They countered that everything was filmed during their off hours, and just for fun. Apparently reasonable minds have prevailed, as the city voted to reinstate them a month after their initial firings.
The Guy Fired for a Minor Crime from 50 Years Ago
It’s only fitting that we take one trip back to the great state of Iowa to round out this list – the state which boasts perhaps the most ridiculous firings I’ve ever heard of. Richard Eggers, a 68 year old native of Des Moines, was fired from his job at a Wells Fargo bank because he had committed a crime. Seems like the grounds are reasonable enough, right?
Goodwill is a nonprofit organization that helps disadvantaged people in North America. The letter G in the logo is a smiling face, conveying the notion that Goodwill provides happiness and relief to those in need.
That yellow arrow is not just a smiley. It also suggests that you can buy everything A to Z on Amazon.
Eighty-20 is a small consulting firm. The squares actually a binary code for the name. Top line: 1010000 and on the bottom: 0010100.
Baskin Robbins offers 31 flavorous of ice-cream. The number 31 is hidden in the logo within the letters of B and R.
It is one of the biggest European retailers, and in French, it means “Crossroads”. The logo symbolizes this word via two opposite arrows. They also added the first letter of the name, because if you look closely you’ll see the letter “C” in the negative space between the two arrows.
The C and O letters at the beginning of the word shape a tyre, which Continental produces.
This logo was made by Stylo Design, a design agency from Covent Garden, London. The entire logo is created with only one number; the number 8. By omitting certain parts of this number, they were able to create the brand name.
Elefont is another logo with a hidden meaning in the negative space. Find the trunk in the lowercase letter
The Formula 1 logo has a hidden number 1 between the letter F and the speed lines.
Here of course an arrow is hidden between the letters E and X. Lindon Leader designed this famous logo in 1994, as Senior Design Director at Landor Associates, San Francisco. It was a result of a work where more than 200 logos were designed before the designer arrived to this solution. It won over forty logo awards worldwide.
The SUN Microsystems logo is a wonderful example of symmetry and order. It was a brilliant observation that the letters u and n while arranged adjacent to each other look a lot like the letter S in a perpendicular direction.
The Northwest Airlines logo has two hidden meanings. For one it has the letters N and W in positive and negative spaces. And there is another less apparent idea in there. The red triangle points to north-west within the circle as if it was a compass.
Conceptual logo that shows a golfer taking a swing and the head of a spartan warrior in helmet at the same time.
At first glance, this logo looks like a map of Africa, but if you take a closer look, you will see two people facing each other.
the palm of a hand in this MyFonts logo made out of the letters M and y.
Toblerone chocolate company from Bern, Switzerland, which is known for high mountains. Bern is also called “The City Of Bears”. Find the hidden silhouette of a bear in the mountain illustration.
The Tostitos logo has a not so hidden message. The letters TIT are two actually people enjoying mexican food at a table.
At first all you see is modern typography, but there is actually a hidden meaning of Sony’s VAIO logo. The first two letters represent an analog signal and the last two are the 1 and 0 of the digital world.
In this Yoga Australia logo you can discover the shape of Australia in the negative space formed between the woman’s raised leg and back.
