EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) – Like tartan, bagpipes, and shortbread Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster is as much an emblem as a tourist draw.
And now Nessie’s back.
An amateur scientist has captured what Loch Ness Monster watchers say is among the finest footage ever taken of the elusive mythical creature reputed to swim beneath the waters of Scotland’s most mysterious lake. (Watch the ‘monster’ footage )
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this jet black thing, about 45-feet (15 meters) long, moving fairly fast in the water,” said Gordon Holmes, the 55-year-old a lab technician from Shipley, Yorkshire, who took the video this past Saturday.
He said it moved at about 6 mph (10 kph) and kept a fairly straight course.
“My initial thought is it could be a very big eel, they have serpent-like features and they may explain all the sightings in Loch Ness over the years.”
Loch Ness is surrounded by myth and mystery, as it is the largest and deepest inland expanse of water in Britain. About 750 feet (230 meters) to the bottom, it’s even deeper than the North Sea.
Nessie watcher and marine biologist Adrian Shine of the Loch Ness 2000 center in Drumnadrochit, on the shores of the lake, viewed the video and hopes to properly analyze it in the coming months.
"I see myself as a skeptical interpreter of what happens in the loch, but I do keep an open mind about these things and there is no doubt this is some of the best footage…
Woohoo, that’ll guarantee a couple more decades of American monster hunters coming over and spending their money.
More seriously when I saw the footage earlier in the week my impression was that it’s a seal. No way is it 45 foot in length, that’s a wild exaggeration.
The story of why an angel sits on top of a Christmas tree:
One day Santa was feeling really depressed, sad, and generally irritable. He opened his closet and his favorite red suit was covered in soot and ashes, unwashed.
Mrs. Claus was out shopping with girlfriends and completely ignoring Santa, because of his bad mood. She also hadn’t cooked dinner in three days and had refused to sleep in the same bed as Santa.
All the elves went to Cancun for the winter and hadn’t been heard from in months.
It was two days before Christmas, and when Santa went out to check on his reindeer, he was greeted by a couple of sick, starved animals which couldn’t possibly make the journey around the world. Santa was truly out of options and did not know what to do next.
He felt like the world was going to collapse in on him and he was easily irritated.
Just then a little angel appeared carrying an impossibly huge tree. She innocently looked up at Santa and asked, “Santa–where should I put this?”
Would you believe that one of my religion professors, who is an ordained minister (or maybe priest, I forget which he is) told me that? It’s amazing how religious can be such dirty-minded people. LOL.
Yep, you can see why they have a problem.
