Weekly Weird News for 28 July 2023
Hey, everyone. Welcome to another weird news roundup. Things weren’t as crazy as the past two weeks. The highlight of the weird week is the UFO/UAP Congressional Whistleblower hearing, but I’ll give you the results in a nutshell: It was the same old nothingburger with some cheese. Some hyped personnel said stuff that everyone had already heard but provided no new credible information. And the beat goes on while some governmental officials waste more time on this. Moving on…
Denial that it’s hellish hot out
Sacred beliefs die hard. There are still many climate change deniers out there even though the world is experiencing the hottest July by far since human recording. https://apnews.com/article/hottest-record-climate-change-july-65e13c9c3d88932b50de935c7977ee70
And the future promises more of the same. Yet, a few people are spreading rumors that the heatwave is a lie. In England, a news presenter accused the BBC of misreporting high temperatures that are “making people afraid of the weather”. Weird indeed because all you need to do is go outside to experience this. Yet, while fringe sites like Fox News and SOTT.net make hay out of the climate related catastrophes, they continue to reject out of hand the idea that these events are associated with climate change. They don’t even try to use evidence to counter (because there is none); they just use headlines like this: It's not climate change that's causing heat waves this summer but no one wants to explain why. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66314338 and https://abcnews.go.com/US/heat-waves-north-america-europe-virtually-impossible-without-climate-change/story?id=101606947
Meanwhile. Temperatures sizzle around the world. You can only deny the obvious for so long. Climate change will affect everyone no matter who or what you attribute it to.
Also, don’t fall down in Phoenix. For the past few weeks, people have been coming into emergency rooms with serious burns from falling on the scalding hot pavement. https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/24/health/arizona-heat-burns-er/index.html
Italian Ice
Italy has been plagued with some very scary hailstorms this season. Severe thunderstorms created record hail twice within five days in Italy. Tennis ball-size hail was reported near Milan, as well as a tornado. Some baseball-sized ice balls hit Padua. The largest hailstone appeared to measure about 7.89 inches, or about 20 centimeters. But the measurement was unofficial. There was considerable damage and some injuries. The bad weather affected several other neighboring countries. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/07/25/italy-hail-switzerland-europe-storms-wind/ and https://weather.com/storms/severe/news/2023-07-26-italy-hail-europe-record and https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/20/europe/italy-hail-extreme-weather-climate-intl/index.html
Update on Dead Man Walking story
Back in January of 2022, I clipped a story about a pair of dudes in Ireland who walked a dead guy (the uncle of one of them) to the Post Office to collect his pension check. This week, they were sentenced to 18-24 months in jail. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1d7gvlxerdo
Bait and switch “family festival” harpooned
A festival promoting itself as a family-friendly event celebrating sustainability and rural life was a ruse for “truth talks” promoting anti-LGBTQ, anti-vax, and other conspiracy ideas. The event locations were tipped off to the organizers’ real agenda by an anonymous informant. Research showed the organizers history of pushing their far-right and hateful misinformation leading to the cancellation of the event. The organizers were pissed that their bait-and-switch scheme to recruit people to their dangerous causes was thwarted. But it certainly won’t stop them from trying again. https://www.vice.com/en/article/ak3738/think-local-festival-ireland-mullingar-covid-lgbtq
Highrise bear bed
Here’s something I didn’t know until today: black bears sometimes take advantage of bald eagle nests for a sleep. This does not bode well for the eagles. During a helicopter survey in May in Alaska, researchers spotted a female bald eagle incubating an egg. Later, the nest was occupied by a sleepy bear. A week later, the egg had been found left out in the cold. It’s not the first time this bear behavior has been observed. https://www.livescience.com/animals/bears/black-bear-caught-napping-in-a-bald-eagles-giant-nest-on-alaska-military-base
Whale ballet
A man fishing with his three daughters off Cape Cod caught a very rare triple whale display as they jumped out of the water simultaneously. This was followed by a calf copying the movement. The event was caught on camera. It’s a pretty nice story for times like these. https://apnews.com/article/whale-ballet-triple-jump-video-ca7fdcd2907b52b19530dc398142dbd0
Door to Heaven
In Benguluru, India, a man captured on video the image of what looked like a giant doorway in the sky. When the video was posted online, several other people claimed to have seen the sky event as well. It appears the video is real and has a cool explanation. The original poster was close with his guess of a shadow of a building. It could be the Brocken spectre phenomenon. This often happens to hikers on a mountain where their shadow is magnified and cast onto a cloud or fog bank as a result of a strong light source (the sun). Of course, once the video was out there, less scientifically inclined suggested more magical explanations. https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/bangalore/others/a-step-by-step-guide-to-your-ivf-journey/articleshow/102088774.cms and https://weather.com/en-IN/india/news/news/2023-07-25-mystery-door-appears-in-the-bengaluru-sky
Music of the forest
A piano has appeared in a wooded area in Oakland, California. No one knows how it got there but people like it. Some musicians stop to play and other hikers enjoy the music in a natural environment. The locals plan to protect the piano in the rain and keep it there. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-28/oakland-woods-piano-has-musicians-reminiscing-on-pandemic
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Thanks for the heads up on Heat Wave/Climate Change denial story. I had just sent you a remarkably daft story from one of Arizona's "faux news" (really faux) trying to tell us that July in Phoenix wasn't really as hot as news reports were saying. And the evidence? A state weather service expert who really just said that the first 6 months were a bit below average. But what's that got to do with reports of July temps? But that's what the reporter was using to deny July heat temps. The reporter followed up with an Arizona State University scientist (legit) who pointed out, quite rightly, that Phoenix city temps have been rising continually over the past 60 or 70 years more as a result of the heat island effect of tall buildings grouped closer and closer as Phoenix went from 106,000 people to 1.6 million, trees were cut, roads were built all over etc. than from climate warming alone. Of course in reality this is not to gainsay climate change but rather to note that a 10- or 20-fold increase in population and concrete structures is going to be a dominant factor in rising average temperatures.
I inadvertently erased part of my comment. The UFO (or UAP) saga drags on despite no one ever bringing up the improbability (I’d say impossibility) of interstellar travel. Or teaching about it.