Get Your Unicorn: Fabulous Mythical Animal Taxidermy Sale

See the Slideshow here.

From the article:

The fictional menagerie of deceased critters also boasts an extended sausage dog, furry fish, mermaid and a bizarre bat-like winged beast with webbed feet.
They formed part of a museum of taxidermy that has closed and now are to go under the hammer.
They were billed in the 19th century as having been brought to the UK by fictional adventurer Professor Copperthwaite.
Some Victorians might even have believed these impossible creatures existed because some, like the Siamese sheep, were real.
Others such as the Jackalope - a nearly extinct antlered species of rabbit "found almost exclusively on the high plains of Wyoming" - were not.
The mermaid was said to have been purchased from a man in Calcutta from a Japanese sailor and the unicorn is labelled "Monoceros unicornis."
And the "cheasant" or "phicken" was said to be a cross between a domestic fowl and ornamental pheasant.

Wow. A "real" jackalope. We all know what's on my Halloween gift list.

Astronomy For Monday: Witch Head Nebula

Intense light streams from Rigel (bright star at right) across 40 light years of space to illuminate the Witch Head Nebula, then reflects another 775 light years to reach us. This nebula is very dim and is just barely above sky glow at a clear dark site. South is up in this image.
Rigel is B8 supergiant star with an absolute visual magnitude 40,000 times that of our Sun. Its surface temperature is 11,000 K.

Word of the Day: Steganography

Above is the last known photo of the Wicked Witch of West Texas. Unfortunately, the photographer was transformed into a naked mole rat just after it was taken. If you see her in your neighborhood, kids, just run away. Don't try anything crazy, okay?

Secret codes and hidden messages are always in fashion around these parts, so with this in mind we embark upon our exploration of steganography. Steganography is a particular way of sending a coded message, of which the acrostic is one example. We posted last week about fun with acrostics. The concept of steganography is simple: it is a message hidden within something else, so it, in effect, hides in plain sight. This is very different from a message sent in cryptographic form. A code that looks like a code makes explicit the fact that it has a hidden message if only one can decode it. The "Voynich Manuscript" is an interesting example of an encrypted text, but since it's never been decoded it may have a more wicked secret. It may just be a random bunch of symbols constructed to make nosey people the world over spend thousands of hours trying to make sense where there is none. If you're trying to think of something vaguely bad to do, making up a hoaxed secret code document isn't the worst idea in the world, but we digress.

Steganography can take many forms. In the digital age a message can be hidden in an image file, for instance. But you don't have to do anything high tech to engage in this form of subterfuge. No, all you have to do is think a bit. As an illustration let's look at a message intercepted by Lulu recently. A message that was on it's way to Cybil. Here's what the message actually said:

Sick
by Goosebury

In the old age wicked was not counted good,
and Goosebury traded wishes wondering.
Then, black borrowed not a blasphemous name.
To merry see more, you sailed soon.
At length did cross an Albatross,
for the sea witch wailed. Knows man nothing? Suspects then nothing.
And the good south wind still blew behind.
Register surprise at happiness the brightened menger makes as thoughtfully Wicked.
Down to a sunless sea.
Twas halloween that day. But we didn't meet.

(½, ½)

Lulu, cleverly, figured out that the "1/2, 1/2" part was a key for deciphering what appears to be a bit of really awful poetry. Bad poetry is a very common form of writing, so the reader could simply ignore this bit of poetic poop, but Lulu is always on the lookout for evil, so she did not dismiss it. What Lulu found when she solved the puzzle this weird message presented can be seen if you click here.

By deciphering the real text within the crappy poem, Lulu learned that Cybil was not just a double agent, but a triple agent, betraying the rest of the family for the Witch and then selling out the Witch for this "Goosebury" fellow. There are other methods of hiding messages stegonographically, as well, and we'll address some of them in the future. For now, try out a stegonographic message with a friend.

Wicked Witch of West Texas Claims Vindication for Red Shoe Theory of Physics

We all know the Wicked Witch of West Texas has long contended that physics would one day prove her controversial claim that "red shoes make you faster." The theory has been that objects colored red, particularly highly saturated manifestations of the hue, somehow decreased "light resistance." Some people have pointed out, most would say rightly, that this "theory" is nonsense and probably part of a general campaign of disinformation carried out by the Witch for purposes known only to her, but certainly with nefarious intent.

Well, guess what. Today scientists have announced a very surprising finding. Light, it turns out, can effect matter. We'll just quote from LiveScience.com from today, but be warned: you'd better hold on to your britches cause this little gem could bring your skull-filling to a full boil. Here it is:

Light can twist matter, according to a new study that observed ribbons of nanoparticles twisting in response to light.

Scientists knew matter can cause light to bend – prisms and glasses prove this easily enough. But the reverse phenomenon was not shown to occur until recently.

The researchers assembled strings of nanoparticles, which are tiny clumps of matter on the scale of nanometers (one nanometer is one billionth of a meter). In a darkened lab, the scientists linked nanoparticles together into ribbons. At first the nano ribbons were flat, but when a light was shone on them, they curled up into spirals.

The discovery was so novel, the researchers were skeptical of their own results at first.

"I didn't believe it at the beginning," Kotov said. "To be honest, it took us three and a half years to really figure out how photons of light can lead to such a remarkable change in rigid structures a thousand times bigger than molecules."

Okay. I know what you're thinking. This is a long way from proving that red shoes make you faster, and of course you're correct. But that isn't stopping the Wicked Witch of West Texas from claiming victory and total world taco domination because of her belief she's been vindicated.

"They had better credit me when this is published, since I posited this light and matter theory over fifteen years ago, when I hypothesized, or made an educated guess, that red creates less light resistance, and that red shoes would, therefore, make one faster. If they don't credit me, let's just say that Madagascar could use a few more exoticish tree frogs," the Witch was quoted as saying when reporters sought her out in West Texas today.

(above is scientist, Franco Andreone, who co-authored the paper.)

Posted by: Zelda del West

Send a Message in Secret Code: Acrostics

In her encounters with the Wicked Witch of West Texas, one of the skills Lulu must employ is unraveling secret codes. The first one she encounters is an acrostic. An acrostic is a coded message that looks like an ordinary piece of writing, but it really hides a second meaning if you know how to look. How does it doe such a thing? Well, the real message is made up of only a few of the letters in the original piece of writing.

For example, say I want to send a message that says: "I'll get you Lulu." (Of course, I wouldn't want to send such a message, but someone we all know of might.)

I might send a message like this: "In lemon lolipops grand elephants trampoline. Young otters understand levity unless levitation undermines."

That, certainly, is a foolish enough message that it makes a person think it's either nonsense, or it hides another sort of sense, if only we could figure out what it is. Well, in this case, the first letter of each word is the only one that counts. So, we would read the message like this:

"In lemon lolipops grand elephants trampoline. Young otters understand levity unless levitation undermines."

Write down only the letters in pink, the first of each word, and suddenly an real message appears from the silliness. If you were sending a message like this one, it helps if the person you are sending it to also knows the code, of course. Otherwise she'll assume it's a silly bunch of nonsense. So, now that you know about acrostics, maybe you should try one of your own with a friend.

Posted by: Zelda del West

Suitcase Words -Portmanteaus

Anyone who knows the history of the Wicked Witch of West Texas is aware that during her Wickidity training she created some very obfuscative, or even confusing, portmanteaus. But, you may be wondering, "What the heck is a portmanteau, and why do we call it that?" Well, here's a little looksee at the term portmanteau and its origin. (In the future we will be posting an ongoing Wicktionary, or a Wicked dictionary, of the portmanteaus the WWWT created for her portmanteau primary.)

A Portmanteau is a suitcase, but it's also a kind of word. Lewis Carroll invented the concept of packing together more than one word (as if they were stuffed together into a suitcase) to combine their meanings into a new word. A commonly used example is "brunch," which is a meal served later than breakfast and earlier than lunch which comes with a slice of cantaloupe.

Here is a poem by Carroll called the Jaberwocky, for which you may want to consult this glossary to discover his meanings.

Jaberwocky

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought--
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Waitomo Glow Worm Caves

Waitomo, New Zealand's caves are home to a fabulous species of gnats, called Arachnocampa Luminosa, that, in their larval stage, create gorgeous displays that resemble a starry sky in the caves' interior.


Great Caves of the World