Weekly Weird News for 7 January 2022
Dog help us
Happy New Year and, well, we’re off to a kooky start. If you are a regular reader, you know I tend to focus on anomalous natural events but, usually, much of what we see in the news seems weirdly unnatural in some way. Sometimes, what people think is “natural”, is more about their poor judgment against nature. (Note that nature can kill you.) And some natural things are seen as really weird. Let’s get right to it.
Pittsburgh rings in the new year with a bang
The new year started off with a boom on January 1st when residents on the southeast side of Pittsburgh, PA heard a large boom accompanied by shaking at 11:20 AM - an unusual time for any celebratory fireworks. Fortunately, there were some clues as to the source. The sound was heard in parts of Ohio and West Virginia some 40 miles away indicating it was not a local explosion. No one reported a flash because it was cloudy (and daylight) at the time. The Geostationary Lightning Mapper, however, recorded a flash at this time that was not lightning. The conclusion: a meteor. https://www.post-gazette.com/news/science/2022/01/02/Sonic-boom-meteor-explosion-Pittsburgh-south-hills-ohio-western-pennsylvania-new-years-day/stories/202201030014
A few days later, NASA reported to the Washington Post that the estimated size of the space rock was about a yard (1 m) in diameter and hit the atmosphere at 45,000 mph - roughly equivalent to 30 tons of TNT. Happy new year, indeed! No pieces of the bolide have reportedly been found. https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/01/04/pittsburgh-meteor-nasa/
Meteors of that size do fall to earth every few days. Considering the many “mystery booms” reported across the US yearly, it’s extremely likely that many are related to the pressure waves from fast-moving and exploding meteors. Great PR for the new Netflix movie “Don’t Look Up”!
Flurona fears
In another of the endless examples of media exaggerating a situation, the Times of Israel popularized a term for a co-infection of COVID and influenza - “flurona”. Two young pregnant women tested positive for both viruses at the same time. It is not unusual for people to be coincidently infected with multiple viruses but the presentation of it in these strange times suggested to the public that flurona was some superbug that was the next thing to fear. Scientific American noted how just the coining of the word can spread misinformation. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/05/flurona-coronavirus-flu-symptoms/
Reinforced memory is key to a happy reunion in China
A boy who was kidnapped from a village in China in 1989 repeatedly drew pictures in the sand of the house he remembered. Li Jingwei was taken 1,000 miles from his family home. Recently, he shared his drawing through a social media video. Police matched the drawing to the town where a boy was reported missing over 30 years ago. DNA tests confirmed that Li Jingwei was that missing boy and he was reunited with his mother. https://news.sky.com/story/man-kidnapped-as-a-child-in-china-reunited-with-family-after-drawing-map-of-home-village-from-memory-12507517
Dogs really are the best
This week’s news contained several great animal stories but this has to be the BEST one. You may have heard this one. Police were called to a portion of I-89 in Vermont for a dog running on the road around 10 PM. The dog ran ahead to an area where the guardrail was damaged when the police noticed an overturned truck with two male occupants ejected. The dog had led them back to his owner who was one of the men suffering from hypothermia. The men were rescued and may have perished if the dog had not been so proactive. https://www.mynbc5.com/article/mans-best-friend-helps-police-find-owner-in-car-crash/38668476 But here is what you didn’t hear: Days later, police report that the dog’s owner, the driver, was driving drunk (and apparently without a seatbelt). The other passenger’s dog was killed in the crash. So… there’s usually more to the story. https://www.wcax.com/2022/01/05/dog-hero-leads-police-dui-crash-bulldog-killed-crash/
In another dog rescue story, a man injured in the Croatian mountains was kept warm by his dog after he fell and couldn’t move. The dog, an Alaskan Malamute, who had no issues with being in the cold, draped over the man while rescuers mobilized to retrieve him. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/04/a-real-miracle-dog-saves-injured-hiker-stranded-in-croatian-mountains
Rabies deaths increase
Health officials reported that five Americans died of rabies last year — the largest number in a decade. Why? Because of anti-vax fears, at least in part. Two persons refused the shots after potential exposure to infected animals because they were in denial about the incident or they didn’t like shots. For another, medical complications prevented the shots from working. Rabies is common but deaths are almost always preventable with quick action. Try listening to experts to prevent dying from it - take precautions when interacting with strange animals and listen to doctors about vaccinations. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/us-rabies-deaths-year-highest-decade-82115714
Deer make good pets
A family in the Pocono Mtns of PA has a license to keep usually colored piebald deer as pets. They note that the deer are friendly when hand raised and make great pets, coming into the house and interacting with people. However, the story glosses over the fact that the piebald coloration is a recessive trait that is detrimental to deer, often causing vision and hearing problems. Also, the deer must be killed if they escape the enclosure. Some might consider raising novelty animals like this to be problematic. Also… see next story. https://www.poconorecord.com/story/sports/outdoors/2022/01/06/unusual-deer-fox-find-home-pike-county-piebald-whitetail-northeastern-pennsylvania/9087830002/
Or do they?
An axis deer killed a man on the grounds of the Paraguayan Presidential residence. The man was gored by the antlered male deer after he entered the restricted enclosure in the dark. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-59871945
Fire-starting cats
Does your cat love to knock things off the table just to see it fall? Cats are evil that way. Pro tip: Don’t leave lit candles around. There have been several instances of cats starting fires this way, even fatal ones - to themselves. But cats also do other evil dangerous things like turn on stoves. The Metropolitan Fire & Disaster Headquarters in Seoul, South Korea estimated that more than 100 fires over the past three years were started by cats including turning on electric stoves. (I suspect these stoves have push-buttons or other switches, not dials.) While cats have been known to warn their owners of fires, it is generally a good idea to pet-proof your home to prevent accidents in the first place. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/01/02/cats-house-fires-south-korea/
Cat donated to thrift store
If you are really pissed off at your cat, wait until it hides in a piece of mobile furniture and then donate that furniture to a charity shop. This family in Colorado did it, accidentally. The cat was found in the old recliner but shop workers couldn’t trace the owner. They somehow figured out where the cat might be and recovered it. https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/01/05/cat-accidentally-donated-to-thrift-store-Denver-Colorado/6061641418327/
Lizard on Ohio rooftop
A lizard found on the roof of a 16 story building in Cincinnati Ohio created confusion for locals. As usual, those who found the unresponsive (but still “warm”) reptile assumed it was something exotic, like a baby alligator or iguana. A quick check with my Twitter herp expert - Markus Buhler - revealed that it looked a lot like a common wall lizard, a non-native species that has naturalized across the US. I messaged the news org with the conclusion but they didn’t seem to care - the initial mystery angle was too good. The lizard could have climbed there or been dropped by a bird and died of exposure. https://www.wlwt.com/article/baby-alligator-iguana-mysterious-creature-found-on-roof-of-cincinnati-retirement-community/38659164
Fishy drivers
Researchers trained goldfish on a Fish Operated Vehicle (FOV), a tiny water tank on a platform that is wired to react to the fish’s movement in order to change the vehicle’s position. The fish learned to “drive” the FOV towards a target in the 3x4 m space they could see outside the tank. They said the experiment was successful and the fish reached the target independent of the starting location where they got a food pellet reward. Cool. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0166432821005994
Shark bites
In not so cool news is this evidence of aggressive shark-on-shark action. A filmmaker captured a video and photos of a great white that had a nasty scar on its back. The image from 2019 created a stir this on Instagram this week as the source of the injury was debated. Shark experts do not think it was related to mating but mostly likely the result of a bite from another shark. Idiotically, tabloids have seized on the bite mark in headlines suggesting that the prehistoric (and long-extinct) giant shark megalodon still exists. The injured shark was about 15 feet long. I found no information regarding the size of the tooth marks translated to the estimated size of the attacker but, it’s not megalodon size. Just a reminder, megalodon is long gone and there is NO evidence that massively huge sharks exist beyond what scientists already have measured. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/shark-bite-mark-photo/index.html
Fish rain update
Last week’s great story about a fish fall in Texarkana, Texas made headlines all over the world. Mostly, the news reports repeated information (sometimes mistaken) from previous news reports. Meteorologists were didn’t get very excited about the story, trotting out the same tired explanation of a waterspout. But, after a week of checking, investigator Paul Cropper and I found no evidence that a waterspout occurred. The fish fall was surprisingly widespread… and weird. Most people treated it like a joke or an indication of a wacky year to come. It may, however, be the best-documented fish fall ever. We’ll have more on this in the near future. But one curious note is that a smaller fall (but still a great one) took place in Fulshear, Texas in January of 2019 under similar conditions.
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I can name so many reasons for getting vaccinated. Preventing dying the extremely horrible death from rabies is way up at the top of that list. Also, dogs really are the best, and they make us better people. If they don't, then it's definitely the person, not the dog, who is the issue!