All posts tagged: Creature

‘Sesame Street’ is pulling back the curtain on Jim Henson’s Creature Shop for 0 a ticket

‘Sesame Street’ is pulling back the curtain on Jim Henson’s Creature Shop for $150 a ticket

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter For years, the creative minds behind some of the world’s most cherished children’s characters have toiled in relative obscurity within a sprawling New York City warehouse. Now, Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, the legendary workshop responsible for bringing the Muppets to life, is finally pulling back the curtain, inviting the public into its magical realm. For the first time ever, the Queens-based workshop has opened its doors for public tours, offering fans a unique opportunity to meet puppet builders, witness live puppetry demonstrations, and capture memories with iconic characters. Jason Weber, the shop’s creative supervisor, emphasized that these $150-per-person tours are a tribute to the often-unseen artisans. “There is a level of expertise here that we’re sharing. It’s not just going to a pop-up store or something like that,” he explained during a recent visit. “Things are made one-of-a-kind, made by hand …

300-million-year-old sea creature mistaken for the world’s oldest octopus

Published by Jenni Sidey

For years, this fossil seemed to tell a thrilling story. Here was an animal from more than 300 million years ago that appeared to look like an octopus, complete with what were described as arms, fins and no visible shell. It was so important that it helped push the origin of octopuses far deeper into Earth’s past than many scientists had expected. Now that story has collapsed. A new reexamination of Pohlsepia mazonensis, a famous fossil from Illinois, has found that the supposed “oldest octopus” was not an octopus at all. Instead, researchers say it belonged to a nautiloid, a group related to today’s Nautilus, the shelled marine animal often called a living fossil. The real clue came from tiny teeth hidden inside the rock for hundreds of millions of years. “It turns out the world’s most famous octopus fossil was never an octopus at all,” said Dr. Thomas Clements, lead author of the study and a lecturer in invertebrate zoology at the University of Reading. “It was a nautilus relative that had been decomposing …

Our modern vision evolved from an ancient one-eyed worm creature

Published by skeptic

It’s easy to take our eyes for granted. But our recent research shows they took an incredible evolutionary journey to reach their current familiar form. It has long been known that our (vertebrate) eyes differ fundamentally from the ones of our distant relatives (invertebrates), because of their cell composition and how they develop before birth. However, answers to why or how these differences first emerged long remained elusive. Our study suggests that our eyes descend from a worm-like ancestor that was roaming the oceans 600 million years ago. The same also applies to all bilateral animals, meaning animals whose bodies can be divided into roughly mirror-image left and right halves. As part of our study, we surveyed 36 major groups of living animals (covering nearly all bilateral animals) to see where their eyes and light-sensing cells are located and what they do. A pattern emerged. We discovered that eyes and light-sensing cells are consistently found at two separate locations: paired on both sides of the face, and at the midline of the head, on top …

Honda Civic Sport: Creature comforts

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get our weekly Drive Smart newsletter for motoring news, reviews and advice from EV editor Steve Fowler Get motoring news, reviews and advice from EV editor Steve Fowler Get our EV editor’s weekly Drive Smart newsletter So here’s a car that you can really covet: the Honda Civic. I know. Unlikely. It’s not a supercar. It’s not a “premium” brand. It’s not a still-fashionable SUV or a crossover, but a straightforward five-door, five-seater hatch. It’s pretty much no longer even got its high performance Type R variant as a “halo” model, driven off the market by the emissions regulations (understandable but regrettable – you may still be able to lay your hands on a future classic). And, well, it’s a Honda Civic, which inevitably means it’s associated with an older, more sedate sort of motoring clientele. People such as me, in fact. The styling has been recently updated and the interior materials improved, and it’s an obviously well-built machine – but tastefully stylish rather than modish and hi-tech like, say, the latest kit coming in …

Predicting the Next Paranormal Creature

Published by Sam Flores

There seems to have been a new paranormal creature for every historical period. Fairies were among the oldest, with notable references in Celtic lore. Werewolves and vampires were popular during Victorian Times. The twentieth century saw the advent of Superman—who was known to be fictional—and aliens, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness monster, which some cryptozoologists believe are nonfictional. A pattern to the invention of paranormal creatures1 as they relate to the time periods in which they emerged can be seen by analyzing their strengths, weaknesses, and technological innovations. Rare Materials Point to Weaknesses A common element attributed to paranormal creatures is that they tend to have specific weaknesses, usually in the form of rare materials. Fairies are vulnerable to iron, according to Origins of Fairies (Briggs 1976, 320) and the ChemEurope blog, which states, “Iron, particularly Cold iron, was employed as a protective substance or charm against faeries. In Celtic Folklore, Fae are culturally held to hold an aversion to iron or even be harmed by the touch of iron” (“Iron in Mythology” n.d.). During …

Skeptic Society Magazine

for honest conversations

Years

Authors

Filter by Month

Filter by Categories

Filter by Tags