Weekly Weird News for 14 January 2022

Ice, fire, and killer sea dragon dinosaur dolphins

Hello from the second week of 2022. It’s pretty rough out there. There seems to be a theme in strange news from the past several weeks where stories about interesting natural phenomena have caught people’s attention more than usual. Could it be that we are desperate for some positive (or un-dangerous) aspects of nature? Maybe.

Let’s start with a few examples of this.

Frozen sand sculptures

Every winter, the sand on the shores of Lake Michigan freezes and then is sculpted by the wind into weird and wonderful shapes resembling mini sandstone hoodoos from arid areas. The small structures are temporary and collapse when warmed by the sun. These pictures have been widely shared on social media this year. https://abc7chicago.com/lake-michigan-sand-sculptures-beach-beaches-winter-weather/11463215/

Special snowy visitor

In a continuation of rare bird sightings in odd places, a snowy owl is visiting Washington, DC. The birds are normally found in Canada and into the Arctic but this unusual transient has created a buzz for bird watchers as people gathered around Union Station to gaze at the beautiful bird. https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/01/13/dcs-latest-celebrit-owl-has-been-perched-at-union-station-all-week/

Magical ice disk returns

This was everywhere in the news so you’ve probably seen it - a wonderful natural anomaly has returned to Maine, the giant ice circle. This reoccurring circle in Westbrook is probably the most famous one because of its size but ice circles appear in slow-moving bodies of water due to shear—when the water on one side of the ice is moving faster than on the other side. An eddy forms causing the rotation. It can also happen if a piece of ice breaks off and gets caught in an eddy where the edges break off and it becomes rounded. I’m not sure why this story was so popular this year (along with the out-of-place birds) but maybe we are just desperate to see some magic in nature again. https://apnews.com/article/oddities-environment-and-nature-maine-aa2de93b8645c7891748e64fc88957c2

Bird spies

While people really did see odd bird visitors this season, there are some less than reasonable people who may think that birds are not all they are made out to be. A 23 year old guy started the “Birds Aren’t Real” movement as a joke but, as we should all know by now, Poe’s law* is real and people will believe anything. This week, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission felt compelled to Tweet (naturally) that Birds are real and not drones that spy on citizens. Satire doesn’t work well in a society where most people are not well-read or can’t think critically. Outrageous ideas are at risk of being accepted without any factual basis. https://www.cnet.com/news/birds-are-real-a-us-government-agency-wants-to-assure-you/

*Poe’s law is the generality that proposes when a clear indicator of an author's intent is missing in a parody of extreme views, some will mistake it as sincere.

Weaponized dolphins

The terrorist organization Hamas claimed that its naval “frogmen” were attacked by a dolphin equipped with specialized combat gear of the Gaza coast. This news garnered the title of “Killer Zionist dolphins”. Wow. The idea of using marine mammals in combat is not absurd but the description by Hamas sources that the animal had been “stripped of its will” and turned into a “murderer” by Israel is dramatic. And if this makes you think about sharks with lasers, don’t. Sharks wouldn’t be so keen to work with humans. https://www.jpost.com/omg/article-692167

Flat Earthers would get equal billing on the BBC

One reason why half the world seems to accept insane ideas about conspiracies is that the media has normalized these ideas with their repetition and presentation. The crazy doesn’t seem crazy anymore as the fringe goes mainstream. Journalists’ job is to deliver the most factual version of a story; it is not to provide “balance” when certain views are clearly off-balance with reality. Yet, crazy stories get clicks. The BBC considers a use of good judgment to be part of “cancel culture” which is ridiculous. The director of editorial policy and standards made the insane claim that flat earthers deserve a space in the news arena (“very occasionally”). People were quick to claim this attitude towards factual reporting is nothing new, the BBC will do anything for more ratings, namely by putting controversy front and center for clicks. Sharing factually incorrect information as part of the news, even with careful framing and context, is clearly dangerous. https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3n3p4/bbc-flat-earth-david-jordan-impartial-cancel-culture

Not news: YouTube is hub of false info

According to a new global group of fact-checkers, “YouTube is a major conduit of online disinformation and misinformation worldwide and is not doing enough to tackle the spread of falsehoods on its platform”. Gee, there’s some news. A letter, signed by international participants, was issued urging changes to the platform. One of the problems is that YouTube only selectively enforces its community guidelines. YouTube is instrumental in spreading all sorts of anti-science, pseudoscience, misinformation, and conspiratorial ideas about Covid, politics, specific people, history, and nature. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jan/12/youtube-is-major-conduit-of-fake-news-factcheckers-say

Update on moon hut

In the Dec 10 WWN, I linked to the story of the mysterious moon hut found by China’s Yutu rover. It was clearly just a rock but the more interesting speculation spread widely. The further investigation showed that it was… just a rock. Not even a large one. What was impressive was that many news outlets actually did follow up by posting this update. Still, people will remember only that something on the moon looked manufactured. That’s what will stick. https://gizmodo.com/mysterious-hut-spotted-on-far-side-of-the-moon-is-a-h-1848321899

Neighborhood in Ontario covered in beans

It rained soybeans overnight on Dec 29 in an Ontario village. The local soybean processing plant “inadvertently discharged” some beans causing the residue. The problem was caused by a clogged collector. The material was not hazardous. The company provided vouchers for car washes. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/soybeans-hamilton-neighbourhood-bunge-plant-1.6307601

When your unwelcomed guest can’t leave

A moose fell through the ground floor window of a home in Breckenridge, Colorado and got stuck in the basement. The window was part of the safety escape for people trapped in the basement but the moose was neither able to climb back out nor exit via the stairs. Rescuers tranquilized the animal, removed the antlers, and carried it up the stairs releasing it with no serious injuries. https://cpw.state.co.us/aboutus/Pages/News-Release-Details.aspx?NewsID=8045

Fabulous fossil find

In February 2021, a contractor at Rutland Water Nature Reserve found fossil remains. It turned out to be a lovely 10m long skeleton of an ichthyosaur - a giant marine reptile shaped like a dolphin. The remains were excavated last year but the news about the find was released this week. The ichthyosaur was the largest ever found in the UK. News outlets made the most of it by dramatically calling it a “sea dragon”. But the BBC News was really confused and forgot to proofread before posting a piece calling it the “Rutland sea dragon dinosaur dolphin”. It was deleted but not before it became the butt of many paleo-jokes. It’s always a shame when headlines promote wrong-headed ideas that end up propagating as misinformation. Two strikes against BBC this week. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59915689

Badger archaeology

A badger in Spain encountered a stash of buried Roman coins from the 3rd century. Archaeologists found the hole and the coins in the badger den and published an article on the find. The animal was likely looking for food during the harsh winter last year. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hungry-badger-digs-up-roman-coins-in-spain-180979378/

They didn’t start the fire

But putting out the gas-fed fire in Darvaza crater in Turkmenistan will not be easy. The president of the country instructed officials to extinguish the dangerous fire. Known worldwide as the “Gate to Hell”, the pit was created by Russian drillers when the ground collapsed under them. The gas release caught fire (or was set) and never burned out. Now, it’s a world-renowned tourist attraction. I’m thinking, if it was easy to dose, it would have been done by now. But, good luck with that. https://www.livescience.com/turkmenistan-gates-of-hell-finally-closed

For more on Darvaza, read my piece on Spooky Geology.

Postal service running 76 years behind

Most of us have a mental list of items that were lost in the mail; we assume we will never receive them. In this case, a lost letter was found and delivered. A Massachusetts soldier mailed a letter to his mother in 1945 while stationed in Germany. The letter was found in a processing center in Pittsburgh where employees tracked down the next of kin. It was delivered to his widow just before Christmas. So, there is hope yet for our missing mail! We just have to wait until they clean all the other processing centers. https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/12/us/letter-mailed-76-years-ago-delivered-trnd/index.html

The Leaning Tower of San Fran

Did you know that the Millennium Tower in San Francisco is off-kilter by over 2 feet and sinking 3 inches every year? Scary, huh? Solid foundation engineering is important. The uneven settling is more than anticipated, fixes have not been successful - and the remediation work seems to have even accelerated the settling problem. Investigators have been looking into the work at the tower and have found some very “unsettling” things. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/leaning-san-francisco-skyscraper-tilting-3-inches-year-engineers-rush-rcna11389

Geller planning “theological earthquake”

And, finally, the ever-needy attention hog Uri Geller wants to tell you he’s mentally searching for treasure even today. Mark his words.

The best way to send me potential stories is via Twitter. Thanks to those who send along links. Sorry I can’t use them, all but I appreciate the effort and your support. If you like this newsletter, and are reading it only on the web version, please subscribe.