• Herald 4 lantern 14 April '82

The Monsters May Not Have Been All Myths

Ever wondier about the origins of the weird cfeaturcfc. that .haunted your childhood dreams-the dragons, mermaids. and godzillas of mythology and monster

lore?

Well.; those beasts weren't necessarily spun out of whole cloth, accor-' ding to the current issue of International Wildlife - tnagazine. Chances are some of them were inspired by real live animals ‘‘viewed, rarely, incompletely, or by untrained and imaginative eyes,” says the

some ( basis in fact, the

magazine reports.

, Among 1 the mythological creatures Inteniatjon&l Wildlife examines are

these: . .

THE BASILISK: fcegend tional Wildlll

has it that the deadl^Jijelammergeierof-fcenlrai basilisk, a serpent with-a .Asia, could hrive inspired'

you've ever read Alice in Wonderland, you know ,the griffin, a flying lion with the head and wings of an eagle. With a little imagination, .says Interha- ‘ “" ,J |jfe, a real bird.

spotted crest and sometimes with wings, could kill oh sigfTt That is, any creature foolish enough tp lookat the basilisk faced, instant death Only one, anjmal escaped this creature’s terror—a small,- weasel-Hke animal with the po\yer- to

the myth oft he griffin Tlie' lammergeier, a bird of prey with a 10-fodt-vding span, is also known as the "bearded vulture'.

because of the tu)t of bristles under its bill. V ' . To observers from below, says the NWF report—thr> larmnergeier's l/awny^ colored underside/and its mane-like beard could have evoked images Of Hons What's more, the range of the real biro 91aL ch6s the range of fhe

bimonthly publication of ^kill the serpent

the National- Wildlife

. Federation.

This theory was explored by scientists meeting in Washirtgton, DC., in January, to found the International Society of Cryptozoology and fo try to establish whieh of the "fantastic” creatures have

Based mostly on this last fact, cryptozoologists believe that.the basilisk ac- . tually was derived from embellished descriptions of the hooded ’cobra.. The cobras.can also be zapped by a sniall, . weasel-like . animal-the mongoose. THE GRIFFIN: If

The State We're In

■ The Unicorn

Endangered Species, So What?

by David F. Moore • , . When September rolls around, it will mark the end of - the existihg federal Fndangrrrd Species Acl., one of the most misunderstood environmetftal regulations on the book:’ That is. it will self-destruct at the end of that month : unless Congress reauthorizes it. It shouldn't come as any surprise if I tell you that an awesome array,of big-do liar interest — from mining to chemical manufacturing, and from construction to agriculture*- are amazing arguments in favor of, at best. , survival of only an emasculated version of the Act f^ost of us are Jamiliar with the snail darter, the tiny j fish which Congress exempted from the Act'.< protection in that the unwise and wasteful Tellico Dani could be built , in Tennessee. Thb situation left environmentalists at the mercy of PR men who brayed, "What’ll it bo. fish hr pooplo? " Bur not many know that over the past three years some 10.000 consultations have been held regarding various endangered species and projects which could further endanger them, if not wipe them out In only 154 of those cases was it deemed necessary to find some alternative to the course of construction originally planned. This was . done without serious sacrifice in virtually every case. THE BIC; PROBLEM with the Endangered Species Act is tfiat it’s art easy target for cheap shots, like Whai di/ ference Could the loss of one obscure species rnnhe? The response — Perhaps little, but perhaps a million human lives — doesn’t do much for those who fail to look bpyond nekt week. You should know that the people who are most upset * about erasure of more and more obscure species of plant and animal life-forms make up the community of pragmatic scientists to',whom we look for medicine, technology and all else which keeps us from being even more of an endangered species than we already are.

Because us is what the whole thing is about If some developer gets made because the Pine Barrens tree frog i.«? threatening to stop his bulldozer, for example, it s easy to ridicule the idea. The same ploy was used.with the snail darter/Byt the idea is.not to save fish or frogs - it’s to save us. ' / HERE’S WHY. A recent issue of Xt^ence. the journal of fhe American Assn, for the Advancement of Science, quoted one researcher as stating that "the restriction of diversity means restriction of the chemical treasure of nature " In other words, the loss of one humhle species of / anything could mean its ability to treat cbricer could bA lost forever, before we even knew about it To pursue that logic; it's reported that-alkaloids have many uses. ip.duding anti-ca'ncer activity Yet only 2 percent of flower ing plants have been tested for the presence of alkaloid' compounds. The past few years have seen discoveries of potential ' heart disease.drugs produced from fireflies, a cockroach repellent from a millipede and shark repellents from a marine muliosk The evening primrose - one variety of which is protected by the Endangered Species Act - has* been found to contain a substartce which iWay have the potential to control'heart disease and arthritis Several important antibiotics have been developed organises found in mud: Streptomycin, for example Exports say that a million species may lie lost in 18 years, and over half of today's species of all kinds may be gone in another 100 years. All of that will be due fo oUr own doings. We can’t hope to avoid.some of that species carnage. but we'd better preserve everything that we can. for those numerous obscure organisms are our owrf lifesupport system here rtn Spaceship Earth . David Moore is executive director qf the N J Cnhservo lion Foundation (20t)539 7540

The Corrections System hy shfrin bwh n. fo.

‘Stepchildren of the System’

n M

It lakes a very special person to-wdrk | ^ successfully as a corrections officer Most I ; who try, do not succeed. They discover I that it is far more difficult than they had I imagined In addition to the basic interest I in criminal justice, this person needs j maturity, stability, flexibility and self-

1 discipline

Prison .environment is subject to rapid |

unexpected changes Small or relatively Fox

unimportant incident's can suddenly

become serious problems if not handled quickly and effectively. This iS a career with negative pressures, continual

stress situations and exposure to physical danger.

Due to these conditions the less effective officers tend to be weeded out in'the early stages Those who stay for at least two years have the best potential for growth in the profession' It isi\’t difficult to understand the high turnover rate in this employment field when one considers both the working environment and the relatively.low pay scale However^ for the individual with an interest in the

work, the job presents unique challenges

THE ROLE OF THE CORRECTIONS OFFICER is spelled out in the Civil Service specification sheets and in our departmental manual of regulations and operating procedures If the applicant's interest and attitude is appropriate. he can easily meet the basic qualifications and

he can learn to deal with jncarcerated persons

The prospect must he at least 18 years old. in good * physical condition and possess a high school diploma <or .equivalent). Standard Civil Service procedures are necessary and this information is availiihle-at any library

or at our office

J Those of us currently-working within the’system are aware that one.of the greatest weaknesses, aside from

overcrowding and low budgets, is the lack of readily aVaHable training programs Within the criminal just'ice systems greai care is taken in the selections of those who will ‘be. dealing in any way with society's offenders. Judge's, prosecutor^, public defenders, law enforcement officers, technologies and administrative personnels*re all highly trained and selected on the basis of.their professional qualifications , FOR SOME INEXPLICABLE KELSON, jail and cof rections personnel have traditionally been the stepchHdren of thesystem. hence, low budgets and unpleasant problems begging for solutions I can only conclude that too many people woultf rather not see oj; hear about our ■ frustrations. Ironically, one of the greatest potentials for making prisons mor'e cost-effective would be to hire and train our Titaff with the same concerns as provided for the conven tional police force. This is not the case. Current available training consists of a 4-Week resident course in Trenton, we feel such training should lx? an (J- to 12-woek highly specialized course. Locally we supplement this Trfnton program with additional fire-arms training, extensive first aid and our own physical fitness program All too often when we think of -jails and prisoners we forget jhe people who make the system work day in and day out These are the supporting civilian'staff members who work at the‘County Correctional Center on a dailybasis The employees who staff our psychological and social service unit, our highly regarded kitchen people, our identification officer, commissary clerk, building maintenance technician and medical support personnel.* all deserve equal pi’fflse along with our officers The system could not function without them * • . This -continuing series by the County Sheriff has btrn condensed for reasons of spare .

mythical creature: INJorth . Africa. Central, Asia &hd 1 Southern Europe THE MERMAID: Even Christopher Columbus helped propagate th^ myth of the mermaid.' On one of his voyages, he reported seeing three mprmaids rise out of the sea. But they "were not ,so beautiful as they are represented,'' he wrote ' - Today, crypotozdolbgist Ihink mermaids were the product of optical illusions that make dumpy walruses a-mile or two away look like svelte! towering mcr maids It happens when art atmospheric temperature inversion approaches the ”' surface of the sea. accprding to a report by 'scientists at the University of * Manitoba. THE UNICORN: Thjs proud, powerful and gentle horse, famous in medieval stories for the magicdl powers of the single born Centered on Hs> head, could have been inspired-by the

one-horned rhinoceros or by the narwhal, a small whale with a long, ivoryprotection similar to the unicorn's But after a biologist at the* University of Maine ‘‘created'' a modern unicorn, some specialists began to wonder whether a true unicorn had really liv ed Franklin Dove transplanted two horns on a day-old hull calf to the . center' oh its head, forcing the growing horns to fuse into one central protrusion Endowed with a horn that gave it more thrusting power.than two horns, this "experimental" unicorn soon becarrte king of the herd. ^ • vDoye noted that the transplant technique has been around kince the days of unicorns

British Seagull 387 Fisher of Men * by Ima Byrd We bird.4 do a lot of flying aroimd'the country and we set 1 * a lotofstuff going on that humans, fpr the most part, mifts. - We see that environmentalist Ruth Fisher! one of. the !best friends we birds ever had. is trying to ggt.on the MUA (Munidpaj Utilities Authority), Now Fisher, to our mind, deserves, fhe Job. She -certainly has her fingers on the county and what's happening But we birds'figure that the rest of the MUA wouldn’t Ijke her being so aware of things Besides, she asks n lot of questions It’s funny that once Fisher made he; bid for the job, a few other people jumped on the band wagon It seemsjhat the MUA is being pressured to hiTf a woman and the only woman they had wgf Fisher; that is until some other ladies decided to'^et on the act We do believe that the big move by certain people to make a bid for the job was mighty interesting. FISHER WAS SURPRISED TO SEE all those women go after the job, tod. You see. for all Her understanding of the environment. Fisbcr is very naive. She still thinks in terms of loyalty, trust and love, that's really where she falls short.Because Fisher doesn’t understand theSom plexities of politics and big business. She still believw that people care about dne another. X Well, we biMs can tell you we’ve heard someeommenLs about Fisher that we couldn’t print. And what we can’t understand is why people like those in the MtlA. the Department of Environmental Protection and the Environmental Prolection Agency doesn't'work; with her From a bird’s-eye view, Fisher is out to do one thing — to protect thoenvironment for everyone. From whfit we see, she spends a lot of her own moriey to work on issues that will affect not just birds and bees but the future security of all humans And she has no conflicts of interest, no per sonalgains. MAYBE SOMEONE OUT THERE can explain to us why Fisher comes off like the enemy What is it that people who do nothing but good are never appreciated 0 Why is it that Fisher had to work so hard to get people to listen? Why isn't everyone following her lead 9 From what we see and hear; everythihg she has done is for the welfare of humanity and wildlife Do people hav£ to have someone to hate 9 Do mortals have to have scapegoats sothey can continue the descretion of the land ahd destruction of our wilderness without people like Fisher jgnawjfig at their consciousness and awareness? Fisher.has made us aware of solar energy, wind power, the earth and environment It was Fisher who first brought the plight of Cape May County Vietnam veterans to the public We observed that meeting last year when hundreds of Viet NaTn Veterans voted thfeii* frustration over being sprayed with AgentOrange in Viet Na»n. It was Fisher who fought development of Stone Harbor Point, almost single-handedly, without the backing of people, only criticisrp from those in power It was Fisher who made us aware of thp nrtdear threat and who demanded safeguards on Salem, Oyster Creek and other facilities before'the Three'-Mile Island fiasco occurred fl was Fisher who pointed out the dangers of the chemical Sevin, the possibility that in years to come children living'in Cape May County ikill suffer ef fects from the massive, uncontrolled spraying by planes t which indiscrimirtately drop poisonk anywhere and at any * time. These sprays' killtis and our food supply They affect 'fishing and erode our sense of well-being, mortal and -wildlife. . / ; YET FISHER STANDS ALWAYS as the enemy and usually alone, why? We birds also read the Bible, for it was written for all creatures not just the man And the Bible says it better than any bird coqld say It: "A prophet is without honor in his own country " Or as one Wise bird said, "a Fisher is without a honor in her owrf country, but we birds take our feathers off to her." . f' !