Weekly Weird News for 10 June 2022
Hello, all. Thanks for joining me for another installment of weird news. This week’s version is short, I’m afraid, as I’m adjusting to a stressful week where I couldn’t bring myself to trawl through the news as usual. If I’m not capturing a story you think should be here, next time, send me your links and I’ll be sure to take a look. The best stories come from local news, for sure. While I’m not going to expand on the guy who thought an alligator was a dog or the people who fell into a chocolate vat (because I couldn’t find much more to say about those things), I’m beginning to wonder if my strange-o-meter is less sensitive these days. I joined a Facebook group for Weird News and discovered they preferred news stories where they could laugh at unfortunate people. That’s not weird as much as it is cruel. We typically don’t know the whole story and it’s almost a given that these articles contain errors that get perpetuated. What comes out in the news is never complete and, often, is deliberately slanted to get you to click and be outraged. If there is a theme for my WWN missives, it’s that I REALLY want to know what happened and I am ever more annoyed at news media for doing a sloppy job at promoting sensational nonsense over interesting substance - even if the interesting substance is why people jump to the weird conclusions that they do.
But, there were some curious bits about this week - real and seemingly unreal. Let’s have a look.
Sleepwalking off the edge
A man who knew he had a problem with sleepwalking walked off the side of a boat at night. He promptly woke up after hitting the water and began to swim as his commercial fishing boat moved off without him. The crew eventually discovered he was missing and alerted nearby ship traffic. He was eventually picked up by a passing ship that finally noticed him but it was by sheer luck. He was Ok. https://abc7.com/dylan-fogg-southern-california-man-sleepwalks-and-falls-of-boat-water-rescue/11924324/
Besmirched
Some guy spray-painted the “Bewitched” statue in Salem, Massachusetts. The statue depicts actress Elizabeth Montgomery in her TV role as a witch. When I first saw the news, I wondered if this was a bit of outrage vandalism over the demonic view of witchcraft, but it wasn’t. It was just some jerk causing trouble and there didn’t seem to be an underlying motive. Anyway, the statue is hideous and is a gross affront to the tragic history of Salem village and the treatment of women accused of witchcraft. But the red paint didn’t make that any better. https://whdh.com/news/police-man-charged-with-vandalizing-famous-bewitched-statue-in-salem/
Roach court
During a court arraignment in Albany, New York, someone disrupted the proceedings by releasing hundreds of cockroaches in the courtroom. The courthouse had to be closed and fumigated. A woman was arrested for the dirty deed. Her motives were not clear. https://apnews.com/article/politics-oddities-new-york-albany-state-courts-28995ac81160aabb0b48618a7b39ae17
Needle panic continues
The needle panic that was rampant in the U.K. in the post-Covid bar scene seemed to be fading away. But it’s since kicked up again and is showing up in France and Holland. While there are many anecdotal cases of people being scratched or even injected, there is no evidence that these incidents happened the way they are described. As I noted when this first showed up in mainstream media last October, there is plenty of skepticism surrounding these claims. People are nervous about being around crowds and may attribute other illnesses or injuries to the rumors of needle attacks. Just talking about them, and especially highlighting them in the news, simply spreads the idea further even though it appears baseless. That’s how social contagions work. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/needle-spiking-europe-britain-france/
Spikes on Mars
Scientists are digging all the cool images captured from the Mars Curiosity rover. Unfortunately, every odd discovery causes a stir in the wacky conspiracy scene. This past week, a photo of interesting rock spikes appeared. It’s suspected the spikes are what remains of the more resistant mineral material that had filled in cracks of the surrounding rock which has since eroded away. It’s neat but not that mysterious. Sadly, people don’t seem to have any patience or, ahem, curiosity to actually find out more about it. They, instead, assume something goofy and pass it on. https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxnexw/nasas-curiosity-rover-discovers-bizarre-spikes-on-mars
Unidentified Amarillo Phenomenon
Finally, this was the top weird story of the week: the Amarillo zoo caused a social media stir by appealing to an Internet favorite pastime - speculating wildly over a blurry photo. The zoo put out a security photo showing an unusual-looking figure outside the fence at 1:25 AM. But that’s it - that’s all we get. There is no scale, no daytime photo to compare, no attempt to recreate the photo, just a news release asking for people to opine on what it could be. And, boy, did they. The problem is that there is just not that much to go on. These types of photos lack detail. The slow shutter speed creates blur further distorting the image. I have dozens of such images from my yard featuring wildly distorted rabbits, cats, and raccoons. It’s very silly to suggest that the figure is a “chupacabra” or a dogman or werewolf, which are not real things. Some people think it’s a person in a costume. It’s actually more likely to be something very normal captured in an unusual way. But we may never know. To jump to the conclusion that it’s special or supernatural is unwarranted because we do not have enough information to eliminate the natural. It may be fun to put this kind of stuff out there but it is troubling that it leads people to conclude nonsense stuff. It would be more useful if there was an effort made to really explain what happened, but no one seems to be very interested in that these days. It’s all about fun and zany commenting - the goofier the comments, the more attention they get. I’m all for fun news but it stinks when it’s delivered in such a dumb way. https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Texas-Chupacabra-unidentified-object-Amarillo-Zoo-17230597.php
The bird box on the pole is probably about 1 foot tall, so the image is about 3 feet from top to bottom. The Spy Point Link Micro S-LTE specs say it takes 2 photos per detection. My guess is that this is smallish animal (jackrabbit?) caught in mid-jump.
First time commenter, long time reader. I'm disappointed that anyone in the media/Comms world associated with a zoo (ostensibly a pro-reality outpost in this zany world) with a sincere wish to ID what's in that photo would release a photo like this. The lack of comparison shots from the day, or additional shots from that night's collection is negligence.
Like you, I'm charitably assuming this to be a natural image of something made confusing by the nature of the camera properties. Without more details it's really impossible to say much with any degree of certainty. I've seen so many weird shots from these kinds of cameras that they ought to all be viewed with a degree of skepticism if they appear to show something paranormal or cryptozoological.
I'd say let people have fun but for every person mocking a piece of toast with a figure on it, there's a grifter collecting donations for the holy image of the virgin mother. This stuff is sadly not harmless.