Weekly Weird News for 8 July 2022

Hi everyone. I’m excited to be back in the regular schedule. Welcome to the several new subscribers! It’s been an interesting week and I’m eager to share all the stuff! Let’s get to it. When it rains, it pours.

Anchovy rain in San Francisco 

I was so excited to see this story! It provides confirmation for our big idea about fish rain that Paul Cropper and I published in Fortean Times.* We proposed that the Texarkana rain of fish last December was almost certainly from birds. Read all about it here. But one of the few weaknesses with the idea is that it probably should happen in dry weather too since it’s not just storms that scare birds. Well, this story from San Francisco was quite fortuitous timing! A huge population boom of anchovies resulted in water birds, probably pelicans, eating so many fish that they lost some while flying away. It’s quite possible that they gorged themselves too much, couldn’t fly far, and, [cough], “lightened their load” over some human habitation areas. The silver fish rained down on roofs and decks around town. Honestly, case closed. Fish rain is primarily caused by birds. https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/raining-fish-in-san-francisco-17272717.php and https://abc7chicago.com/raining-fish-in-san-francisco-bolina-lagoon-dead-anchovies-marin-county/12015241/

*If you are a subscriber, and want a copy of this FT article, reply to this email and I will send it to you. But really, if you like my sort of news, you should subscribe to the mag. The digital versions are great.

Fickle Sydney weather

I recall not long ago we were concerned about fires near Sydney, Australia. Now we have flooding. Of course, the weather has its cycles and there are natural reasons for this. But there will be some people who, like clockwork, will propose and popularize crazy-ass explanations for newsworthy events for clicks, for laughs, or for the utter lack of reasonable thinking. I really hate to even talk about the wackiest of ideas because they spread so much. People tend to share outrageous and extreme ideas more than factual and rational ones. That’s why the rumor that the rains in NSW are caused by cloud seeding is spreading. Because it’s much more work to try to understand the factors that led to major flooding, some reach for dramatic sci-fi ideas like weather manipulation instead. Cloud seeding is real but unreliable and not what’s happening here. There is no technology for deliberate weather manipulation and no rationale for flooding a major city with it. Once again, TikTok, the platform spreading these wild ideas, is out to make people dumber. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62049654

Glow in the Dark clouds

Noctilucent clouds form in the summer near each pole in the layer of the atmosphere called the mesosphere. Water vapor congregates around specks of meteor dust floating in the mesosphere and freezes, forming ice crystals. The clouds glow at night. The frequency of these clouds have been higher than in the last 15 years due to an increase of water vapor. Recent appearances may be related to the Hunga Tonga eruption in January that propelled material high into the atmosphere. Similar to the aurora phenomenon, these special clouds have recently been seen farther from the polar regions. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2022/jul/01/rare-clouds-that-glow-in-the-dark-are-the-most-vib/

Jet packs for real

With the recent return of Jet Pack Man (see this WWN), people want to know if jet packs are real and perhaps being tested. Well, they are real and they are being tested. First responders would find such devices enormously useful. New and powerful devices are now being tried out for use in rescue and military exercises. But they remain dangerous to use and not for the average person. Also, these new suits cannot account for the sightings of a “jet pack man” as reported near LAX. The experimental flights are happening only under certain conditions in safe areas, not where planes are flying. The best conclusion for what pilots are seeing is errant balloons. https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k8zmy/first-responders-are-testing-futuristic-jet-suits

Naughty parrot lets loose his kangaroo pal

A kangaroo got loose from its pen in Louisiana. Weird enough. But he was freed by his pen mate - a parrot - who learned to open the latch. The escapee was safely recaptured. The owners will parrot-proof the lock. https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/07/01/kangaroo-released-from-enclosure-by-parrot-Louisiana/6301656692879/

Florida sarlacc pits

Back in May, I highlighted two incidents of collapsing sand that were deadly. Apparently, a new TikTok Challenge (Damn that social media stupidity again!) is resulting in holes left on the beaches in Florida. People are digging deep pits and showing them off on the video-sharing app. It’s not only dumb to do this because of the danger of sand collapse but they then leave the holes open. This is hazardous to other people and wildlife, particularly turtles who will fall in the holes and get stuck. Don’t be dumb. Go dig a hole in your own backyard instead, if you’ve got nothing more productive to do. https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2022/06/27/new-tiktok-trend-leaves-giant-holes-on-beaches-threatening-turtles/

Cat Covid/Chronic Covid

Scientists in Thailand confirmed that a pet cat passed on the COVID virus to its owner. This is the first case that establishes that animal-to-person transmission occurs. Genetic analysis confirmed the same variant infected both cat and owner. The animal was in very close contact with the person. Such conditions would be rare. Besides, the cat sneezed in its owner’s face. The same situation does not typically occur in deer, for example, that also carry the virus. The main route of infection remains overwhelmingly human to human in close contact. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01792-y

And another weird COVID discovery: A man who had chronic COVID due to cancer treatments evolved at least three different distinct lineages of the virus by himself over less than 500 days. https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/coronavirus/connecticut-patient-had-covid-for-471-days-evolved-3-new-lineages-study/3761463/ 

Guidestone explosion

The controversial monument known as the Georgia Guidestones, north of Elberton, GA, were partly destroyed on Wednesday when an unknown person set off an explosive device. Surveillance cameras captured the event. The event rendered the remaining structure unstable so it was demolished. The granite slabs with a capstone were emplaced by an unnamed benefactor decades ago. They were, rather grandiosely, called America’s Stonehenge, which was a terrible name, but they served as a tourist attraction. They contained ten “guiding thoughts” etched on them, which were mostly reasonable and good, except a few suggested racist ideals. More about the Guidestones are here. It will be interesting to see if they catch who is responsible (which is likely because extreme people tend to yap about things they did) and why they did it. People had various wacky views about them and their origin and they attracted the attention of religious zealots (and politicians - I know, what’s the difference these days, right?) who called them “Satanic”. In fact, candidate for governor, religious zealot Kandiss Taylor, included destroying them as part of her platform. She Tweeted about the news, "God is God all by Himself. He can do ANYTHING He wants to do. That includes striking down Satanic Guidestones." So, who knows who did the deed. Maybe it was God, if “He” now uses explosives and flees the scene in a silver sedan. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/us/georgia-guidestones-explosion.html

Vampire hunting kit is almost certainly fake

A wooden box full of peculiar weaponry has fetched 13,000 English pounds (~$15,000) at auction under the description of a “vampire hunting kit”. The box contained crucifixes, holy water, a bible, a wooden stake, and more. It was once owned by an English aristocrat in the 19th century, so they say. While the BBC and other copycat news sites state that it’s unclear if it was produced as a novelty or if people really believed it could have practical application, there is a more fundamental reason to doubt this. Vampire kits like this were mass-produced in the 1950s. Sometimes old items (pistols) were used for them because they can be dated. But the rest of the items were artificially aged. None are well authenticated, including this one. The media did a poor job of reporting the real story here - that someone spent a bundle on a novelty. While they look cool, they aren’t what they are represented to be. Don’t just trust me, search for yourself. The fakery of these kits is well established all over the web.  https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-derbyshire-61998607

Skull in B.C. getting true Bigfooters excited

Here’s another dubious claim of an interesting thing that probably is not what it’s hyped to be. YouTuber wildlife guy Coyote Peterson posted on social media that he found a large primate skull in the wilds of British Columbia. He admits to “smuggling” it out of the country and will show the footage of the discovery on his media channel. Below is the screen-capped Facebook post. Now, this is important: there is NO OTHER FOSSIL EVIDENCE of large primates in North America. So the odds that he has found an authentic skull of what he is suggesting is Bigfoot is not plausible. Actual zoologists and anthropologists having a look are saying it’s a gorilla skull. It may be a planted skull or a cast because there would never be naturally-deposited gorilla remains in North America. But we can’t tell anything about it because there is no provenance or objective investigation of it. Instead, we have a well-known media stunt guy and marketer probably doing what he does best - pulling a stunt for marketing. My BS meter is pegging to the right with this claim.

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