Weekly Weird News for 22 September 2023
Hi everyone! Thanks for joining me for another fun-filled episode of the Weekly Weird News. I’m on the road this week so apologies if the writeups are a little shorter than usual. Welcome to new subscribers! As usual, I have a number of animals stories this week and a few weather related anomalies. Let’s go!
Unfortunate gator gets a home
First, a followup with some good news. I had been wondering if the injured and deformed alligator spotted in Sanford, Florida from a few weeks ago had been caught. She was! The gator who had no upper jaw is now residing in the Gatorland reptile park in Orlando. They will feed her small bits of food to account for her disability that was caused either by an accident or fight with another animal. https://apnews.com/article/alligator-florida-reptile-park-orlando-0c54bd337b027eaea65a2a1a5916aa62
Baby lion rescued in Serbia
A lion cub was found wandering in northern Serbia. The animal, which was only a few months old, was not afraid of people but was in poor health. It was taken to the zoo to be cared for. It's unknown how it got there or where it escaped from. https://apnews.com/article/serbia-lion-cub-found-zoo-subotica-ed01f4c022553a613313aa4d7b87e05d
Leave the manatee be
In a rare sighting, a manatee was spotted in Rhode Island. It's not unheard of for the protected animals to venture north. The Mystic Aquarium animal rescue program out of Connecticut is monitoring the animal until it likely makes its way back to Florida waters. It is illegal to touch or harass the animals. People have been told to leave it be. https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/new-london/photo-mystic-aquarium-confirms-manatee-spotting-off-rhode-island/
Mink farm vandalized, animals went everywhere
Nearly a thousand minks were released from a Northumberland County farm in northeastern Pennsylvania. Someone broke into the fur farm and released the animals who promptly escaped into nearby woods, yards, and farmlands. Originally, the PA Game Commission thought some six to eight thousand were released but the number seems to be just under 1000. Many news sites reported the larger number. Minks are not domesticated; they can bite and injure pets. After the word got out, locals saw them everywhere. They are not adapted to living in the wild. Many were killed on the nearby highway or were trapped by rescuers. People picked them up thinking they were ferrets. Mink farms in other places have been targeted by anti-fur vandals. While people may think they are saving the animals by freeing them this way, it is cruel and dumb. Police are looking for suspects. https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/northumberland-county/new-information-on-missing-minks-in-northumberland-county-rockefeller-township-fur-farm/523-971175b6-00cd-4938-b061-e25f9e0fd383 and https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/09/21/minks-escape-farm-pennsylvania-release/
Sheep find some electric lettuce
A herd of sheep looking for fresh greens to eat wandered into a greenhouse full of cannibis in Almyros, Greece. The sheep ate about 100 kg of it and started feeling the effects, after which it was discovered that mary-jane was to blame. Farmers are reeling from the floods in Greece that destroyed many crops and killed livestock. https://greekreporter.com/2023/09/21/sheep-eat-100kg-cannabis-greece/
Wild waves on the Cape
The western cape of South Africa experienced some wicked waves this past week. It caused damage, flooding, and the death of an elderly woman. Exceptionally high tides were caused by seasonal effects (it's spring tide in the southern hemisphere) coinciding with strong winds from a cold front and a new moon phase on September 14. The waves that reached far inland, flooding businesses and sweeping away cars. One large wave moved through a car park and swept one woman to her death. https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2023-09-17-storm-surge-freak-wave-kills-93-year-old-woman-as-it-hits-car-park-in-leentjiesklip-in-southern-cape/ and https://www.capetownetc.com/news/saws-explains-wild-waves/
Up on the housetop, a mystery
Here's a fun mystery. A woman in Phoenix heard a loud noise and her house shook at about 2pm in the afternoon. She thought it was an earthquake. But when she went outside, no one else had heard it. Her neighbors supplied camera footage to show that her clay roof tiles were disturbed but the camera did not trigger when the damage occurred to show the cause. A roofing company did not discover any object that fell on the roof to disturb the tiles. The underfabric was still intact, which suggests it was not a heavy object fall from a height that would have damaged the roof itself. The best guess is that it was a dust devil that hit just her house and lifted up the tiles. https://www.azfamily.com/2023/09/19/phoenix-couple-perplexed-after-finding-roof-tiles-mysteriously-torn-up/
Meteorite is wrong
An amateur "astrophysicist" (sorry, that's not a real thing) should stick to his day job. An Irish news station reported that a hole on a beach in Dublin was a crater from a meteor strike. The resident space enthusiast discovered the "impact" site and pronounced that the dark colored rock inside the hole was the meteorite. It was, instead, a hole dug by some beachgoers and the rock was from earth. But, like many people who are too in love with their ideas, and overly excitable, he thinks his guess still might be right and is going to have the rock tested. (Ask any geologist: we all have encountered that person who insists they know what they found is special, no matter what the expert says.) https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/66841235
Google me a fake pic
Investigative news source 404 Media reported on a fake "AI" photo appearing on Google that was the first result returned when you searched for "tank man". Instead of the iconic photo of tanks in Tiananmen Square from 1989, you saw a manufactured "selfie". The image had been posted to a Reddit thread. The discovery illustrated the disturbing problem of AI images going viral, overtaking legitimate historical content. And, I would suggest it also shows that Google’s search algorithm is very broken! The sources of information that get top billing are unreliable and skewed. After the exposure by 404 Media, Googled removed the photo from the search results, but the problem may remain; Google has no means to remove AI-generated content which guarantees the misleading content will continue to fool people. https://www.404media.co/first-google-search-result-for-tiananmen-square-tank-man-is-ai-generated-selfie/
Deadly Google misdirection
More trouble for Google. The company is being sued by a woman whose husband died when he drove into a stream based on Google maps directions. The bridge had collapsed in 2013 and there were no signs warning that the road was not passable. No entity had taken jurisdiction over the road, which had private owners. These parties are also named in the suit for negligence. Google had been notified of the problem with their Maps app directing people across the bridge multiple times but didn’t correct it. It sure is ripe for legal action. But I’m not sure Google is the ultimate entity to blame. In providing the public routing information, are they obligated to ensure safe conditions? That seems like an impossible task. This was a public hazard that was the primary responsibilty of local government in charge of public safety. However, it may lead to Google, like other map apps, to incorporate critical information reported by users. https://scrippsnews.com/stories/family-sues-google-maps-after-man-drove-off-collapsed-bridge/ and https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/widow-man-died-driving-collapsed-bridge-sues-google-directing-rcna110616
Twin explosion - what the heck happened in 2018?
One school district in PA is experiencing a Twin-dergarten phenomenon as 17 sets of twins are present in the kindergarten class this year. This is the most sets of twins in the schools recent history. Considering the children must be 5 years old at enrollment, one must wonder why so many twins were born in 2018 in this locality? Maybe it’s just a normal statistical fluctuation. https://6abc.com/twins-kindergarten-twin-dergarten-17/13787940/
Mississippi drying
Water levels in the Mississippi River at Tower Rock, Missouri are once again near 0. For the second year in a row, drought has allowed the rock formation to be accessible by foot. (Road closures are currently preventing tourists from hiking to the formation.) Previously, the formation used to be accessible very rarely. It difficult for boaters and barges in this region these days because of the low water levels. As water levels drop, residents in Louisiana run the risk of having salt water flow in to replace the normal fresh groundwater, spoiling their drinking supply. https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/21/us/mississippi-low-water-levels-drought-climate/index.html
Aliens redux
Ugh. I HATE this constant alien bullshit. I heard someone refer to it as “UFOria”. But here is a followup piece to the ridiculous Peruvian alien “mummies” story from last week. Vox summarized all the ethical issues surrounding Jaime Maussan and the alien bodies presented to Mexican lawmakers last week. The fakes were deliberately created out of human and animal bones intentionally stolen to manufacture frauds. This is certainly not the first time fraudulent alien bodies have fooled believers in this area of the world. Maussan and cohorts are despicable hucksters intent on making a profit from gullible believers. And, all the ancient alien garbage has a strong current of racism. While the US nonsense is also atrocious - Congresspersons are perhaps starting to see this - the South American BS is worse. I’m not going to mince words - you are a complete fool to fall for this alien UFO garbage. https://www.vox.com/culture/23875671/aliens-mexican-congress-real-or-hoax-peru-nazca-mummies-jaime-maussan-fraud-scam
NASA steps up
Meanwhile, NASA states they will play a bigger role in investigating unidentified aerial phenomenon. This isn’t a bad thing. I’m hoping that reports can potentially produce some interesting information. For example, how many drones are flying around and are they a menace? Are there legitimate mystery craft that may be spying on us? Maybe we can get good reports of ball lightning or other mysterious luminous phenomena. Or, maybe we can count how many times people think mundane things, like planes and Venus, are UFOs. https://cosmiclog.com/2023/09/14/nasa-says-itll-take-on-a-bigger-role-in-ufo-research/
Scientists say that the continuing hype and parade of nonsense claims is bad for society - it presents a distorted picture of how real science works. If the time comes where evidence of actual life outside earth is found, what will people think? https://www.axios.com/2023/09/19/hyped-alien-claims-risk-science
That’s it for this week. See you next time.
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