Weekly Weird News for 29 July 2022

Hello, dear readers! I am OVERFLOWING with weird news this week so, by necessity, some of these clips will be short. If you are interested in reading more, that’s what the links are for! Also, if you are reading this on the web, please subscribe. It’s no obligation and you are sure to get the WWN each week.

Let’s begin with some Updates on past stories

Monkey attacks in Japan - One monkey caught

Last WWN, I linked to stories about monkey attacks in India and Japan. While a baby had reportedly been killed in India, Japanese macaques are attempting to come indoors and have focused on attacking children and the elderly. Traps aren’t working; the monkeys are big and bold. One animal was tranquilized and euthanized in Japan. But the unusual attacks continued with at over 50 incidents so far. The population of macaques has been thriving since conservation efforts increased the population, which has them living in proximity to people. They appear to terrorize people just for fun - they have plenty of food. It’s expected that more of the aggressive monkeys will be culled. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/27/world/asia/japan-monkey-attacks.html and https://apnews.com/article/japan-monkey-attacks-97f8e316daa48d6f5a6fb43632d1353e

Sinkhole pool owners arrested

The owners of a swimming pool that collapsed into a sinkhole last week, killing one man, were arrested on charges that they installed the pool without the proper permit. This suggests that a ground study was never done to be sure the pool was built on a stable foundation. They are serving house arrest. https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-israel-arrests-3e3bdc1a20f6769b42970adbcb8ea329

Lake Mead - another body found

Two discoveries of human remains had been found so far in the epically low Lake Mead. As expected, another discovery was found. It sounds like this latest one was also found inside a barrel, indicating it was dumped there. https://www.fox5vegas.com/2022/07/27/we-are-shock-family-discovers-human-remains-lake-mead/

Now onto new stories, well sort of. Sometimes what seem like unique reports have a history.

Red seas at night

A pilot flying over the Pacific saw an eerie red glow in the water. When he shared the images, everyone started guessing wildly. But it was not the first time these were seen. They were also documented in 2014 between Japan and Alaska. People assumed that it was volcanic eruptions or something paranormal. But it is almost certainly the lights from fishing boats that use red LED lights at night to not scare the fish away. The lights are also visible from satellites. This is not a mystery but the “internet” insists on making it so. https://www.kktv.com/2022/07/27/what-is-this-mysterious-red-glow-over-pacific-ocean/

Ocean floor divots

Strange track-like divots were found on the sea floor by researchers who don’t know what made them. The lines of holes or divots were also reported in this same area, near the Azores back in 2004. They appear to have sediment around them. The multiple straight or gently curved trackways intersected. No animal was spotted associated with the holes then, or now. Called “lebensspuren” (life traces that refer to patterns in the sediments), the origin of the trackways is a mystery. https://www.vice.com/en/article/93abez/scientists-stumped-by-mysterious-holes-in-seafloor-that-look-human-made

More extraordinary results from the project can be seen here. https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/welcome.html#

It might take a while but it’s likely we’ll solve this mystery. Back in 2013, a beautiful large circular pattern on the ocean floor was found to have been made by pufferfish. 

Beware of daggers flying from the deep - sailfish

A tourist from Maryland on a boat in Florida was injured when a sailfish was hooked on the line and landed in the boat after it tried to attack it. The sailfish’s huge pointed rostrum (or bill) pierced her in the groin and she had to be hospitalized. https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/07/25/sailfish-stabs-woman/

Knock, knock, the bears want to come in

In Greenville County, South Carolina, a doorbell camera caught a black bear on the porch nearly ringing the doorbell, trying to get in. The bear resorted to the bird feeders for a snack instead. Authorities tell locals to secure vehicles and buildings because bears are eager to get at food wherever it is. https://www.wyff4.com/article/greenville-county-bears-caught-on-video-doorbell/40719632#

In Alpharetta, Georgia, a young bear was spotted trying to open the doors of the shopping mall. The doors were luckily locked. He gave up and left only to be hit by a car before making off into the woods. https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/wild-encounter-bear-spotted-local-shopping-center-customer-catches-it-camera/EFGU6MHIQFH25NER2CDLUZZSIM/

Burrowing mammals digging them bones

It was quite weird to find two stories of digging mammals leaving bones around. But here they are in the same week. One in the UK and one in the US.

A Welsh grandma was traumatized after human bones were found in her yard, Police suspected foul play but it was then discovered that the bones were deposited by badgers who stole them from a nearby graveyard where they had tunneled under the remains. Various morbid pieces have been left in her garden for the past year. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/gran-scared-death-grave-robbing-24551066

Groundhogs in Alton, Illinois have been poking around a cemetery where they leave bones on the surface. This does not go over well with visitors and cemetery owners. If the worst place for a groundhog is a golf course, the second worse place might be a graveyard. The groundhogs will be trapped and removed. https://www.kmov.com/2022/07/23/groundhogs-digging-up-bones-alton-cemetery/

White groundhog

An Ohio couple spotted a strange pale animal near the road and stopped to have a closer look. It was a white groundhog. They took a picture. Albino groundhogs are quite rare but several sightings have been documented in the past few years. This one, as well as one in Missouri in 2018, doesn’t appear to be albino (pink nose and eyes) but more ivory-tan or leucistic with dark nose and eyes (though it’s hard to tell in this picture). https://fox8.com/news/a-white-groundhog-a-massillon-couples-unusual-spotting/

Loose lynx hijinks

A big cat, likely a Siberian lynx, has been spotted roaming Islip, Long Island, NY. The animal approaches homes and looks undernourished. It is certainly an escaped pet but no one has claimed it. Police are warning people to keep an eye on small children and pets while a rescue organization tries to capture it. https://www.longislandpress.com/2022/07/27/wild-big-cat-on-the-loose-in-islip/

It’s hungry.

Instant emu/karma is going to get you

In a very strange turn of events, a man in Bristol, England crashed his truck into the front window of a shop. He ran from the scene over a fence in a field only to encounter an emu kept there. The mother bird with young attacked him. Police arrived and arrested him. Hmm, karma. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/man-crashes-shop-runs-attacked-7380249

Ass-phyxiation

This most certainly qualifies as weird news. It’s so weird, I’m not sure what to make of it. But since the idea came from fish (loaches), it’s a reminder that we really are all evolved fish, so to speak. New research suggests mice and pigs can absorb oxygen through their anus. In other words, they can breathe through their gut. Administering oxygen through this route, called enteral ventilation, might help human patients suffering from respiratory failure, and for premature infants. Eventually, the research will mean tests on human volunteers. Yep, an oxygen enema. https://www.vice.com/en/article/epzxj4/pig-breathe-through-anus-study

Here is the full paper https://www.cell.com/med/fulltext/S2666-6340(21)00153-7?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2666634021001537%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

Pink diamond

A huge pink diamond was discovered in Angola. The 170-carat stone, called the Lulo rose, is the largest pink stone found in 300 years and the fifth largest found at this mine. The uncut stone will be auctioned. The pink coloration is caused by impurities in the crystal structure. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-28/big-pink-diamond-discovered-in-angola-largest-in-300-years/101276078

Mystery Somerton Man now has a name

The identity of a dead man from 1948 is revealed after a professor used genealogy to find his name. The man was found dead on Somerton beach in Adelaide, Australia with no identification. Several months later, authorities found a secret pocket in his clothes with a paper that had the words “Tamam Shud” meaning “the end” or “finished” in Persian. He was famous as the Somerton or Tamam Shud man. His death mask was publicly displayed at the time in the hope he could be identified. The current claim derived via DNA results is that man was Carl ‘Charles’ Webb, not a secret spy, but an electrical engineer. But why he was there and how he died remains unanswered. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-26/somerton-man-identified-melbourne-born-engineer-researcher-says/101272182

You can’t go ask Alice

“Go Ask Alice”, published anonymously in 1971, was the supposedly real diary of a teenage drug addict that made kids terrified of drugs and parents freak out. I’ve never read it but learned about the impact from a You’re Wrong About episode where it seemed clear that it really wasn’t a real diary, but a fictional one. A new book is out that unmasks the author. It was not a drug addict or a family member, it was a former Mormon camp counselor who penned (some say entirely fabricated) the controversial anti-drug novel. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/01/how-a-mormon-housewife-turned-a-fake-diary-into-an-enormous-best-seller

New study says conspiracy beliefs are not increasing overall

This may be a surprising finding. A new study compared surveys of belief about popular conspiracy claims and shows that, generally, these beliefs hold fairly steady or decrease over time. They aren’t widely on the increase as many assert. Even I may have asserted this. Instead, what we may be seeing is the prevalence of talking about these ideas which make belief in them seem more common than they are. While the study is not definitive and has some flaws, they did try to use the same questions across different time spans from months to years (according to what data they could obtain). Strange ideas about COVID and QANON did not get statically more believers. The largest point increase was the belief that aliens are visiting earth, measured in July 2019 and again in March 2020, which showed a 10-point increase from 23-33%. Older ideas may fall out of date and, over time, those believers die out. It’s an interesting read that should give us pause about assuming beliefs.  https://www.sciencealert.com/belief-in-conspiracy-theories-may-not-actually-be-increasing-after-all

Access the entire study here. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0270429

Uni of Bath should remember their ethics clause

Finally, give the University of Bath press office the “worst news writing” award of the week. Whoever wrote the press release for a paleontological news story about freshwater plesiosaurs stupidly included mention of the Loch Ness Monster and suggested that the new information means that “Nessie as plesiosaur” was “plausible”. That’s what the media, starting with the UK Telegraph, grabbed onto and ran with. The misinterpretation (getting the facts wrong) and misinterpolation (extending the meaning beyond what’s reasonable) of the data ended up on every viral website and tabloid, even People magazine, saying that “science has proved Nessie was a plesiosaur”. That’s bullshit, but it’s what happens when one is so sloppy with wording. The scientists involved probably never mentioned it but, with a trend for science papers to find a click-bait hook, it’s unsurprising that this happened. The association has happened several times before when press people try to jazz up the research. The idea of Nessie as a plesiosaur (which is not plausible, not even in an extended list of choices to explain the phenomenon) is a sticky meme. People love to use it and we’ve grown used to it. The finding of more plesiosaur fossils in freshwater was not even a new finding and has no bearing on a cultural legend. I hope that the writer gets demoted. https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/plesiosaur-fossils-found-in-the-sahara-suggest-they-werent-just-marine-animals/

Examples of headlines used by non-scientific media outlets. Headlines are what people notice and remember.

Note how this Nessie story might go against the claim that conspiracies aren’t increasing. If we consider conspiracies as a form of misinformation, we can observe that the misinformation may not grow to include more believers, but be taken up and persist in a core group of people because the media loves to repeat it and people consume that. When it’s mentally available to us and reinforced by repetition, people will think it’s a supported claim (“Nessie is a relict plesiosaur”). In a better world, misinformation should decrease because bogus stuff would not be reported and people would think critically and adopt the better conclusion. But it doesn’t happen like that.

Tune in next week when I continue to bring you the worst in science reporting in the mainstream media. Well, I hope not. I’ll work on finding more genuinely interesting stuff instead.

Thanks for reading.