National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on aquatic humanoids.

[Lateralus]

Interesting but a little bizarre. Did we really need to be told this?

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/mermaids.html

[catamount]

But are mermaids real? No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found. Why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all seafaring peoples?

Why indeed...no way in hell am I going to swim near any place called Devil's Reef!, that much I do know!

[Vulpine]

*shifty eyes*  They just say there's no such thing as aquatic humanoids. 

[TransconaSlim]

Interesting but a little bizarre. Did we really need to be told this?

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/mermaids.html

It's in response to the airing of Mermaids: The Body Found on Animal Planet.  Kinda like those big foot or ghost shows, but with mermaids(they call it "docufiction").  See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mermaids:_The_Body_Found

A part of it is about The Bloop, which is a mysterious noise recorded roughly around where R'lyeh is 

[LambethWarp]

Haha, yeah I saw this the other day: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18692830. 'No evidence of mermaids', says US government. As if they expect us to believe THAT! They also deny the existence of aliens, but we know better than that, right guys? I'm sure we've all read Prof. Dyer's report on the Antarctic expedition of '31...

[Clangador]

Sharks and large squids are the only things that concern me in the oceans.

I think mermaids and unlikely to have evolved.

[old book]

I'm thinking NOAA saw fit to issue the denial following the Animal Planet Mermaid-hunters show, but also following the recent reports of mermaids in land-locked Eastern Zimbabwe, where men are refusing to work on a hydroelectric dam there following reports of the 'maids in the river. Apparently mermaids have a REALLY bad reputation in Zimbabwe.

[Bob Lovecraft]

I'm thinking NOAA saw fit to issue the denial following the Animal Planet Mermaid-hunters show, but also following the recent reports of mermaids in land-locked Eastern Zimbabwe, where men are refusing to work on a hydroelectric dam there following reports of the 'maids in the river. Apparently mermaids have a REALLY bad reputation in Zimbabwe.

The idea of an African mermaid is pretty freaky considering how violent a lot of the folklore of Africa is. I'm picturing a crazy b%*^h with wild hair, sharp gar-like teeth, with a necklace of human fingers swimming in a muddy river and ripping men apart. Add the beating of hideous tom-toms in the background and the screams of natives, and you've got a Lovecraftian African Holiday right there.

Bob

[old book]

In land-locked Zimbabwe, folklore has it that mermaids not only exist, but they have supernatural powers. Mermaids have a bad reputation in Zimbabwe; some believe they're responsible for kidnapping, torture and even murder. Late last year, attempts to install pumps for irrigation at a dam in the eastern highlands city of Mutare came to an abrupt halt after reports of mermaid sightings. A traditional healer was called in to cast the mermaids out...

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/audio/cr/201204/20120429-cr3-mermaids.mp3

[LambethWarp]

I bet they have a rep for stealing penises. That seems to be a surprisingly common trope among variations of the harpy/hag/succubus style of she-monster in many parts of the world. Apparently it happened in mediaeval Europe, too. Interesting slant on mass hypnosis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penis_panic

[Inner Prop]

The idea of an African mermaid is pretty freaky considering how violent a lot of the folklore of Africa is. I'm picturing a crazy b%*^h with wild hair, sharp gar-like teeth, with a necklace of human fingers swimming in a muddy river and ripping men apart. Add the beating of hideous tom-toms in the background and the screams of natives, and you've got a Lovecraftian African Holiday right there.

Bob

Man, you guys have got to stop giving me ideas for stories!  I just can't keep up.  I'm armpit deep in writing about cursed artificial joints right now (2/3d done with the first draft).  This is a great idea.

This also reminds me of how FNH reads stories about Stanley and Livingstone; and Hemingway in the Amazon.  Creepy Victorian/Edwardian expeditions in the name of what they knew of science are great and somehow much better of stories of the earliest explorations of the Americas.  I wonder why?

[Bob Lovecraft]

Probably because exploration for the sake of science (and by extension in the Edwardian/Victorian settings, empire) come off as a man vs. the unknown in a way that man vs. indian natives just doesn't do very well. The dark, steaming jungles and lost tribes of those kinds of adventures are much more mysterious and tense than the temperate pine forests and certainty of TONS of indians that you would get in an American exploration story.

Bob

[old book]

Strange, I was just reading about Stanley and Livingstone. One of them was a preacher spreading Christianity, wasn't he? The pathos seems to have been they or one of them ended up as the last living white from among their expedition, but I was just skimming and don't know their stories very well at all. The French fellow (Brazza?) at around the same time roving around the Congo was just nuts, a total adherent to the idea of the noble savage who blamed Stanley for making the natives violent against him. Of course if you look at the map of the colonies in southern Africa at that time, it's pretty obvious what's going on: France, Germany, Portugal and Britain are in a mad rush to link up their scattered holdings through geographical conquests, although the way things are laid out, it's inevitable there will be losers (besides the Africans, of course).

Sorry, who is FNH?

From what I gathered, the people in eastern Zimbabwe think mermaids tend toward crime, violence, homicide and vampirism. Penis-snatching is more associated with witchcraft and sorcery and mainly in West Africa, as far as Africa goes and as far as I can remember. More or less from Sierra Leone, Liberia down through Nigeria, Togo, Ivory Coast, those places.

[Inner Prop]

FNH hosts Cthulhu Podcast.  I'm pretty sure he's a member of this forum too.

[Konrad Hartmann]

I bet they have a rep for stealing penises. That seems to be a surprisingly common trope among variations of the harpy/hag/succubus style of she-monster in many parts of the world. Apparently it happened in mediaeval Europe, too. Interesting slant on mass hypnosis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penis_panic

It's not just a myth. It happened to me. A witch stole my penis and, like I told my wife, replaced it with a small one. It used to be much more impressive. I hate that witch.