The Agents of F.L.A.S.K.

[GHT]

It was probably The Devil, taking a leak.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Monster of the week deep.

The facts: This footage was taken by scientists at Suruga Bay, Japan, which is noted for being extremely deep. The Scientists lowered some bait to a depth of one mile down. At first some normal 6-foot sharks show up ---that’s what you see in the first few seconds of the video. But, wait for it! Soon the sharks are chased away by a truly monstrous shark. By monstrous, we are talking a predator estimated (judging by the size of the bait cage) to be in the neighbourhood of 30 to 40 feet long (although it looks even bigger to me). It makes the first sharks look laughably small. The two-minute video is really crazy. Wait for the end of the clip to get a clear view of how big that bad boy is, when it more or less leans against the bait cage. Incredible.

After scratching their heads in disbelief, the researchers who took the video finally declared that they believe it to be a very large specimen of the rare Pacific Sleeper Shark. Up until now, the largest Sleeper Shark ever documented was about 23 feet long. If the shark in the video is indeed a Pacific Sleeper Shark, it would be by far the largest specimen ever recorded. But the video is not much to go on. In truth, no one is 100% certain what kind of shark it is.

Most of the sea floor has never been seen by the human eye. There are almost certainly undiscovered sea monsters out there.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Sharkzilla lives !!!

 

[Zombie_61]

They're gonna' need a bigger boat.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Thought to be extinct in the wild, New Guinea’s singing dog found to be alive and thriving after 50 years.

None had been seen in their natural habitat for half a century until 2016, when an expedition located and studied 15 wild dogs in the remote highlands of the western side of New Guinea. A new expedition returned to the study site in 2018. New Guinea is the world's second largest island. The eastern half is Papua New Guinea, while the western half is part of Indonesia and is known as Papua. The dogs were first described after a specimen was found at an altitude of about 2,100 meters in Central Province, Papua New Guinea, in 1897, the study said. Despite anecdotal reports and unconfirmed photographs in recent years, many feared the New Guinea highland wild dog had become extinct through loss of habitat and mixing with feral village dogs.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/31/asia/singing-dog-found-in-wild-scn-trnd/index.html​

So, maybe there is still hope for Thylacines, not to mention other cryptids.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Thought to be extinct in the wild, New Guinea’s singing dog found to be alive and thriving after 50 years.

None had been seen in their natural habitat for half a century until 2016, when an expedition located and studied 15 wild dogs in the remote highlands of the western side of New Guinea. A new expedition returned to the study site in 2018. New Guinea is the world's second largest island. The eastern half is Papua New Guinea, while the western half is part of Indonesia and is known as Papua. The dogs were first described after a specimen was found at an altitude of about 2,100 meters in Central Province, Papua New Guinea, in 1897, the study said. Despite anecdotal reports and unconfirmed photographs in recent years, many feared the New Guinea highland wild dog had become extinct through loss of habitat and mixing with feral village dogs.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/31/asia/singing-dog-found-in-wild-scn-trnd/index.html​

So, maybe there is still hope for Thylacines, not to mention other cryptids.

Like Dingos, they were once domestic dogs, which for whatever reason, returned to the wild. They are a close relative of the dingo as it is believed the Australian aboriginals brought similar dogs from what is now Papua New Guinea & Western New Guinea, to Australia some 6,000 years ago.
Although rare, there have always been breeding New Guinea singing dogs in zoos & parks around the world.
They are not quite in the same category as Thylacines though.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Yikes. Another real life monster. This 4.5 meter long, 2 ton croc was killed when it went into an Indonesian village (presumably) looking for food. Never mind snakes, I hate crocs.

 

[Harry Gooch]

As soon as I saw it I thought that's a bird scrambling up the rock face. Having taken some screen shots I have two options. Either some sort of penguin or possibly a bird that got into difficulties in the waterful & drenched/injured wings prevented it from flying. If you use your device's enlarging doo daas, you can see a very bird like head.
View attachment 254782 View attachment 254783

Looks like the Gorn from the original Star Trek series.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Missing: One solid gold, life-sized statue of the Virgin Mary. Is this just a myth? Could this possibly be true? (Remember that, in these troubled times, gold sells for about $1,900 per ounce.)


Next stop Cocos Island, located in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 340 miles southwest of Costa Rica. Cocos Island receives 275 inches of rain per year, has dense tropical forests, cliffs of up to 183 meters and the lowest cloud forest in the world. A true lost world of misty jungles.

But from our perspective, the main reason for an expedition to Cocos island is the $1 billion worth of treasures hidden on the island. It all began in 1820 when Peru went to war with Spain. The revolutionary General Jose de San Martin planned to invade Lima, and the Spanish Viceroy decided to remove all of the gold from the war zone for safekeeping.

The Spaniards commissioned British Captain William Thompson and his vessel Mary Dear to transport the treasure of Lima, including gold coins, silver, diamonds, and a solid gold life-sized Virgin Mary statue (!!). But instead of doing the bidding of the Spanish, Thompson and his crew murdered all the Spanish on board and headed towards Cocos Island where they buried the loot.

Eventually, a Spanish warship caught up with them, and the Mary Dear’s crew was executed for piracy. Everyone, that is, except for Captain Thompson and his first mate who both agreed to take the Spaniards to the Treasure. But they both escaped before revealing the secret location. Dozens of adventurers have since tried to locate the treasure but only a couple of coins have so far been found. Even Franklin D. Roosevelt hunted the treasure in 1910.

C’mon! How hard can this be? It’s a relatively small island, only 9.2 square miles. New aerial survey technology allows you to map the contours of any landscape in great detail, even through a rainforest canopy. With such technology, we should be able to fly a drone overhead and “see” where major digs have taken place in the past. Depressions, hints of a trail, or other signs of disturbance probably still exist but are hidden under tropical growth.

Who wants to invest their life savings in this fool-proof plan? Fool-proof, I tell you. You can’t go wrong. Has F.L.A.S.K. ever guided you astray before?? Not to mention that we will film the expedition and sell the rights to that unimpeachable source of historical truths, the History Channel.

One small detail: Overnight stays on the island are strictly prohibited. The Government of Costa Rica officially banned treasure hunting on Cocos Island in 1994. Only armed park rangers are authorized by the Costa Rican government to stay on the island. Part of their job is to shoo away treasure hunting gringos.

Is the treasure just a myth? Too good to be true? Was it secretly removed long ago? Why isn’t the Costa Rican government hunting the treasure? Why is there no town or settlement on what seems like a prime piece of real estate? Is the island cursed?? Does Doctor Evil have a secret submarine base under the island???

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimdob...rica-and-you-will-never-find-it/#2f780cb37c08

Hold the press! Late Edit:

But wait! It is True! (Or is it?) I just found this article claiming the treasure has been found!!!

https://qcostarica.com/200-million-dollar-treasure-found-off-costa-ricas-pacific-coast/

Pardon me, if I remain a bit sceptical. Why hasn’t this amazing find been splashed all over the mainstream press? Not sure I buy the claim that it has been found.

This really is a bit of a mystery. I just wasted a half hour trying to find other stories that verify that the treasure was found. Nada. Nothing. (or, rather, some very few copies of this same story at some small, non-mainstream sites.) Maybe you will have better luck. Is it fake news? But why? We love a good mystery. This one is in two layers. Is the treasure a myth? Was it found?

 

[Benny Holiday]

Dumb ass rangers, I'd have taken the treasure secretly off the island and not told the government there anything about it. Typical politicians, they've claimed it now because it's part of a 'natural reserve'. Finders keepers, you greedy government scumbags!

 

[GHT]

In the southern England county of Dorset is a well known Giant. He's called The Cerne Abbas Giant after the small village of the same name. He's been around for at least four hundred years, there's documented evidence of him being mentioned in the 1600's.

He has caused much of stir throughout his time and he's been the subject of mockery and vandalism, (note the covid19 mask) but he's still there.

Just like the crop circles mentioned earlier, the giant suddenly got himself a new neighbour. He just appeared one morning:

 

[Tiki Tom]

In the southern England county of Dorset is a well known Giant. He's called The Cerne Abbas Giant after the small village of the same name. He's been around for at least four hundred years, there's documented evidence of him being mentioned in the 1600's.

He has caused much of stir throughout his time and he's been the subject of mockery and vandalism, (note the covid19 mask) but he's still there.

Just like the crop circles mentioned earlier, the giant suddenly got himself a new neighbour. He just appeared one morning:

Just proves the old adage: "Never do giant graffiti on a hillside when you are hungry." Look at the size of that doughnut!

 

[Tiki Tom]

Sightings of the legendary and elusive lake monster in Okanagan Lake, British Columbia. The monster is popularly called Ogopogo. Sightings and stories supposedly go back to the early 1700s, when trappers and traders first heard of the creature from native inhabitants.

Video of June 2019 sighting:

https://globalnews.ca/news/5381999/...aptured-definitive-ogopogo-sighting-on-video/

Video of August sighting 2020:

https://globalnews.ca/news/7289840/okanagan-lake-video-mystery/

Looks like a strange single-row of waves on an otherwise tranquil surface. Not a double row as might be caused by a boat. Weird and mysterious, indeed.

Scientists say that such waves can be caused by thermal stratification. Sometimes these stratified temperature/density layers will flip, or one will dive under the other. Supposedly this natural occurring phenomenon can cause such unusual waves, even on very calm lakes. They claim that this accounts for why there are so many lake monster legends in so many lakes around the world. Sounds a bit implausible to me (a warmer layer of water under a colder layer?), but I’m no scientist.

Or, on the other hand, maybe lake monsters really do exist and sometimes they like to swim up near the surface!

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Or, on the other hand, maybe lake monsters really do exist and sometimes they like to swim up near the surface!

That's right, never let a logical explanation get in the way of a "maybe"

 

[Tiki Tom]

You can say that again. No fun or fantasy allowed in this thread! This is not the place.

The Bear Lake Monster is said to stalk the Utah-Idaho Border, but is it real?

https://www.thetravel.com/is-the-bear-lake-monster-real/

 

[GHT]

Looks like a strange single-row of waves on an otherwise tranquil surface. Not a double row as might be caused by a boat. Weird and mysterious, indeed.

Och aye, sounds like Nessie on vacation.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

The Bear Lake Monster is said to stalk the Utah-Idaho Border, but is it real?

Of course it is & despite being centuries old, can still move at a fair lick. So no dipping yer little pinkies in Bear Lake.

 

[Tiki Tom]

"Slow news day" or "There has got to be something to it." Take your pick.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Happy Friday, FLASKers who enjoy having something weird, controversial, mysterious, spooky, hard-to-explain or just plain odd to think about over the weekend.

Today's topic blends two of our favorite things: Archaeology and cryptozoology. Specifically, we are talking about the ideas of the small group of enthusiastic supporters of the theory that a race of giant humanoids roamed the earth in the far, far distant past. They point to giant footprints found in sediment that has long since hardened into stone, megalithic stone blocks that seem too big for humans to have worked with, and tales of ancient giants in the folklore of many cultures around the world. Weird stuff, indeed. The video below takes us to one curious site in South Africa. It's only a couple of minutes long and is kinda fun. (Click on "watch this video on YouTube" if it does not come up immediately.) Do you want to believe? Do we already have all the archaeological answers? Or is this all obviously a bunch of crackpots manufacturing stuff?

 

[Zombie_61]

^ So, when she says she's a little taller than one foot...