Weekly Weird News for 21 July 2023

Don't fall for the hype

Hey, everyone. Thanks for checking out the weekly weird news. We’re still in the silly summer season and WOW there is still a lot of crazy stuff circulating in the news. But if you learn anything from the clips this week, it’s Don’t believe the hype!

The news media, the police, even bona fide experts are making claims that aren’t supported by evidence. That’s how social media works these days. We demand information, even if it’s not solid. Check out the many examples I’ve collected below.

Giant turtle hoax in Indiana

A hoaxed Facebook post sparked concern from extremely gullible Hoosiers who believed a man-eating turtle was in Bloomington’s Lake Monroe. The article by a wannabe screenplay writer Kevin Goodman said that a 9ft long and 300-year-old snapping turtle had killed a person in the lake according to “forensic scientists at Purdue University”. The piece said decapitated human remains were found recently. The post contained additional false details and was easy to fact-check with Purdue and the coroner. https://fox59.com/indiana-news/totally-fabricated-officials-debunk-viral-post-about-a-9-foot-man-eating-turtle-in-lake-monroe/

Goodman fessed up to the fakery but, as these things go, the hoax horse had long left the bar and could not be easily corralled. The Department of Natural Resources had to make a statement debunking the claim of a giant turtle at all. Only one article made deliberate mention of the likely origin of this giant turtle story, The Beast of ‘Busco - an exaggerated tale of a giant turtle in a pond in Churubusco, Indiana that was used as a tourist stunt in 1949. https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/news/2023/07/19/internet-hoax-human-eating-snapping-turtle-in-indianas-lake-monroe/70424307007/

Flip side: I don’t know why they did this (other than another tourist bait) but the Taos (New Mexico) County Sheriff’s Office sent out a very stupid warning about Bigfoot encounters. Geez… https://www.koat.com/article/bigfoot-warning-taos-county/44549862

Hot enough to bake bread

It was certainly hot in Texas this week. And there is no end in sight. Roberta Wright decided to have a bit of fun on social media and posted a pic of her baking bread in her brick mailbox. It’s possible that too many people believed that. The pic went around the world. https://abc13.com/viral-photo-montgomery-county-news-women-bakes-bread-in-mailbox-houston-weather/13503777/

Pterosaur photographed in Buckinghamshire, England

Get a load of this pic!

It’s a pteranodon!
Now look again. That was fun. Paul Squires was snapping pics in Spade Oak Nature Reserve in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire when one of his photos appears like a pterosaur (mistakenly called a ‘pterodactyl’). The crested head is typical of a pteranodon, an extinct flying reptile. But the image was a lovely illusion formed from the bird’s tilted tail feathers as it’s flying away from the camera. Pteranodons don’t have feathered wings either. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/dad-catches-picture-pterodactyl-flying-27351413

Mystery carcass called a “mermaid”

Some of my favorite finds on the internet are articles about mystery carcasses. They are also one of my least favorite things because of the asinine way they are covered by the media. Some reporter trawling social media (usually Facebook or TikTok) will see a post of a mysterious find that is getting lots of attention from people commenting and guessing what it is. This week, a beached skeletal carcass in Queensland, Australia was said to be a “mermaid” like shape. (It really wasn’t.) https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/animals/mystery-alien-creature-baffles-scientists-exactly-like-a-mermaid/news-story/8f7ace5b5f308b5489d8843551562f1f

So, the lazy journalists posted the clickbait and did no additional work. Luckily, an educated observer noted it was probably a small whale (dolphin), which got included as an afterthought at the end. The headlines read “Baffles Social Media, Internet Is Clueless” Well, you can only be baffled if you don’t consult people who actually know things. But they did have one part right. https://www.ndtv.com/feature/mystery-creature-found-at-australian-beach-baffles-social-media-internet-is-clueless-4208629

Mystery metal object

Let’s stay in Australia for another mystery beached object: some big metal thing. This was found far north of Perth. At first, no one knew exactly what the origin of the cylindrical chunk was so it was treated as hazardous, possibly radioactive. The consensus was “space junk”. Better guesses came from the European Space Agency: “We’re pretty sure, based on the shape and the size, it is an upper-stage engine from an Indian rocket that’s used for a lot of different missions”. Yet, others said it was the fuel cylinder from a rocket that gets jettisoned and falls into the sea. That sounds right. https://apnews.com/article/space-junk-mystery-india-australia-rocket-beach-695abf0f8bd1ad908bfd5e020d03a19f and https://nypost.com/2023/07/18/mysterious-object-that-washed-up-on-beach-identified-by-reddit-sleuths/

More space junk

Another UFO/UAP Congressional hearing coming up next week. It was all hype and hand-waving until Thursday when we found out it will be just three witnesses: David Grusch, a former U.S. intelligence official; David Fravor, a former Navy commander; and Ryan Graves, a former Navy pilot. Graves and Fravor claim they have seen mysterious craft. Grusch made nothing-burger headlines recently by claiming (thirdhand?) that the U.S. has vehicles of non-human origin. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-committee-hold-hearing-ufos-week-rcna95309 One pro-alien sponsor for the hearing, Burchett (R-Tenn), made big promises about this being a significant event. But it won’t be. The head of the UAP investigation team, Sean Kirkpatrick said that thirty witnesses interviewed in relation to the crashed saucer claims provided no verifiable evidence to support the assertions. This is ridiculous. We have clowns in Congress. https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/pentagon-says-whistleblowers-provided-no-verifiable-crashed-saucer-information

Another JTR suspect. Meh.

Yet ANOTHER person claims that they have revealed the identity of Jack the Ripper. Except it’s yet another pet theory. The evidence (that JTR had a wonky arm and gait) is dubious and unverified. And the rest is speculation and supposition. Unimpressive. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a44601668/jack-the-ripper-identity-solved/

A bilious treasure

A dead sperm whale that washed up on La Palma died from an intestinal blockage. That blockage was worth a half a million dollars. The obstruction has turned into ambergris, a substance that scientists believe is secreted from the bile duct to coat indigestible objects the animal has eaten, such as squid beaks. Except it didn’t work this time. The intestine may have burst resulting in its death. https://www.livescience.com/animals/whales/dollar500000-chunk-of-floating-gold-found-in-dead-whale

Another family in Fife also found a large piece on the beach (no whale carcass). https://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/people/rare-find-of-ambergris-on-leven-beach-could-net-fife-family-thousands-of-pss-4223319

Ambergris is used for some perfumes, incense and an additive to food and medicine. It’s highly prized, though many perfumes are made with a synthetic fixative because of ambergris’ rarety and animal origin.

A bilious family of frauds

A father and three sons in Florida went on trial this week for promoting and selling the use of bleach as a “miracle” cure for COVID, cancer, and other illnesses. The twist is, they formed a “church” to protect their claims and their profits, the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing. https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/07/church-of-bleach-family-goes-to-trial-representing-themselves-in-court/ It didn’t work. They “represented” themselves in court by refusing to say anything. The family thinks they aren’t subject to the law. The jury deliberated for a short 30 minutes before finding them guilty on all counts. They finally spoke by saying they will appeal. It doesn’t work that way, scumbags. https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/07/church-of-bleach-family-guilty-on-all-counts-plans-to-appeal/ Unfortunately, people still think this is an actual cure. Its use was boosted by the now twice-indicted master fraudster himself, ex-President Trump.

Berlin lion drama ends

I’ve been closely following the story of a female lion supposedly on the loose and spotted in the area southwest of Berlin, Germany. The claim began when people started calling the police apparently in response to an anonymous video on Twitter that appears to show a maneless lion at night with the lower half hidden by vegetation. It looks convincingly like a lion. It appears to be eating something. The reports say it attacked a wild boar, which are common animals here. There appears to be another animal in the video that may be a boar. But the video cuts off before the animal walks away, which is suspicious.

Typically, you get no credible view of the "lion" or big cat but this video was extremely convincing. However, we have to be cautious. I saw no information that the video was confirmed and that it was taken in the time and location specified. While some experts were sure it was a lion, no one claimed the animal was theirs (not surprising) and none were reported lost from licensed facilities. Here is a good rundown from the news of an expert who was convinced it was a lion and the police response: YouTube link.

But not everyone thought it was a lion in the video. Vertebrate paleontologist Dr Darren Naish thought it was a boar in the video based on the tail and head. Other vets also suggested this is not a lion. https://tetzoo.com/blog/2023/7/20/kleinmachnow-lion-not-a-lion

Claims of people seeing the animal are very dubious. This is a well-known effect that people will “see” a missing animal but are making mistakes. We see what we are told to see. Many of the details given by the media in this situation were not careful or critical and assumed a lot. When people hear the framing, they then take that as fact. But it’s not. There were no lion prints or carcasses found. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66265874

This AM, police say they called off the search and finally concluded there was no lion. A German news source reported that the body shape and posture of the animal shown on the video were analyzed by two independent experts (one of them from South Africa). Both came to the conclusion that it was definitely not a lion. Some experts who said otherwise in public are going to feel embarrassed. And some might continue to believe there is a lioness on the loose. https://www.euronews.com/2023/07/21/hunt-for-lioness-on-the-loose-near-berlin-goes-into-a-second-day

<Sigh> The End. For today.

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