Weekly Weird News for 9 Jun 2023

Imagination runs wild

Jun 09, 2023

Good day to you all. It’s a crazy time, isn’t it? The reality of life today is extreme enough but many stories under the label “news” in front of our faces are, instead, mundane things that have been wrapped in a mysterious theme. It’s very weird. It sometimes feels like reality is so crazy that we want to push that down in favor of a narrative that is also insane but it’s more controllable. So stories that hardly pass the straight-face test for those with a bit of scientific or cultural grounding become wildly popular. It’s almost like gossip. Look at this bizarre thing people have seen! Let’s make wild speculation about it (instead of doing some research or reasoning to understand it) because that’s very fun and distracting. It is a lot more exciting to imagine and share the story that aliens or at least a meteor arrived into your backyard than to assume a more down-to-earth explanation. Unfortunately, the extreme interpretations are often what ends up in this newsletter. I’m here to try and dial back the insanity. Some people find that fun. If you do, I’m super-glad you’re here too.

Before we head to the bonkers stuff for this week, please make sure you have subscribed.

Sea-hare sighting

I first saw this story last week as simply a case of a fairly unusual animal sighting. A person filmed an approximately foot-long creature swimming in an interesting way flapping its long fins. They sent it to wildlife officials, who, disappointingly, didn’t know what it was. The answer about its likely identity was included in the text (at the very end, of course, which most people might miss) but in the subsequent days, the story got carried across worldwide webpages. The REAL headline should have read “Non-native sea hare makes a visit to South Carolina, surprising observers”. Instead, we get “What on earth is this creature swimming in South Carolina?” or “What the heck is that?! Wildlife officials stumped”. Another important detail is that the animal, a kind of marine mollusk, is not typically in these waters but the warming ocean temperatures mean it’s venturing farther north. https://www.wcnc.com/article/life/animals/mysterious-creature-swimming-pawleys-island-south-carolina/275-f5b45f74-2520-4831-bfb4-d9495879f0e4

The witches that aren’t

A woman and her grandfather in British Columbia set up a trail cam at a deer carcass to see what came to visit. They got a surprise when they discovered two people, a scantily clad woman and what appears to be a man in jeans, both with long hair concealing their faces, came up to the carcass. The female was seen to touch it and bring its foot near her face. The woman who obtained the pictures sold them to a news service where they appealed in a tabloid. The framing was that they are witches or Satanists or something worse. The Mirror’s headline was “Woman’s horror as wildlife cam catches ‘naked witches hosting carcass-eating ritual.” But the most likely explanation is that it was a trail cam prank. The website Wild Hunt, a pagan advocacy site, lamented the use of the term witches because nothing in the photos depicts a legitimate practice of Paganism, Wicca, or Witchcraft. The practice of hoaxing trail cams, however, is clearly on the rise. https://www.outdoorlife.com/survival/witches-eating-deer-carcass-trail-cam/ and https://wildhunt.org/2023/06/the-viral-deer-eating-witches-that-arent.html

Meteorites don’t dissolve in pool water

We are currently experiencing a time in the news cycle where people have aliens on their brain. Remember the story of the meteorite that fell in NJ? This guy hoped he would have the same literal windfall when a clod of mud fell in his pool in British Columbia. It’s a clod of mud, yet the media was eager to eat it up. https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/06/07/canada-suspected-meteorite-splashes-backyard-pool-british-Columbia/1261686150592/

Las Vegas aliens have landed

The media and even the police got excited about a report of aliens landing in a Las Vegas yard. Why this is coming up in the news after over a month is odd except it coincides with a story of a military official making extreme claims about alien craft. The details are weird and many conclusions are reached by giant leaps. The yard shows a circular track and the people claim they saw 8 to 10 feet tall nonhuman creatures and they called 911. I got shades of the Hopkinsville goblin story because the report followed a sighting of a bright object in the sky. Then the witnesses say they heard patter on the roof and saw one of the creatures described as a greenish-grayish being with large eyes and long legs. The report to the police, who also saw the falling object, was then followed by claims that surveillance vehicles were in the area, suggesting that something unusual really did land. What happened here? It’s unclear but the best guess is that a meteor sighting (which is verified) lead to witnesses on the ground thinking it crashed in their yard and then fear and imagination took over. We certainly have plenty of alien material to draw on when faced with an unfamiliar situation. It’s not unusual for those people to draw on cultural cues for explanations, no matter how bizarre. The case was declared “unfounded” by police. But that hasn’t stopped people from examining blurry video that they insist shows a weird being. Others who think this is BS complain that it’s taking away from legitimate discussion on UAPs. Whatever… https://www.8newsnow.com/investigators/100-theyre-not-human-witness-details-alleged-alien-encounter-in-las-vegas/

Booby-trapped house

Gregory Rodvelt was charged with unlawful possession of explosives in 2017. He then lost his house in a lawsuit. When appointed officials entered the home to prepare it for sale in 2018, they noticed a sign saying it was booby-trapped with various kinds of "improvised devices". They called in the FBI. One of the agents was injured when ammunition from one of the traps hit him in the leg. Rodvelt also rigged a hot tub to roll into anyone who trespassed. Rodvelt was found guilty this week on one count of assaulting a federal officer and one count of using and discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. https://lawandcrime.com/crime/man-who-booby-trapped-home-using-hot-tub-set-like-the-stone-rolling-down-in-the-indiana-jones-movie-and-other-devices-found-guilty-of-injuring-federal-agent/

Crocodile virgin birth

A crocodile isolated for 16 yrs in a Costa Rica zoo laid eggs and one of them hatched. The baby was 99.9% genetically identical to herself. That's the first time this phenomenon of parthenogenesis was observed in a controlled environment for an American crocodile. The ability to reproduce without sexual genetic exchange is known to occur in some reptiles and birds. The ability is an evolutionary advantage in extreme times where mates aren’t found. But the cost to the offspring is high. The discovery of parthenogenic species has dramatically increased in the past two decades because researchers are now looking for it. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2023.0129

Humans as top predator in nature is never in doubt

A second crocodile was found dead in Australia within a 5-mile area in a deliberate act. The carcass of a female was left butchered. Later, a person called the Daintree River Crocodile and Wildlife Cruises company to say they killed the animals and fed them to the dogs. Crocodiles in Queensland are a protected species so killing or possessing parts of dead animals is against the law. Some people undoubtedly feel they pose a threat and should be exterminated. Who’s the threat, really? https://www.livescience.com/animals/alligators-crocodiles/mystery-of-what-or-who-butchered-australian-crocodile-deepens-following-discovery-of-2nd-corpse

Beavers, not alligators in Arizona

Witnesses at Lake Havasu City's Bridgewater Channel reported that alligators were spotted in the water. The claims were accompanied by less than definitive visual evidence. Officials say people saw beavers, not alligators. Once again, rumors and hype fed the mistaken interpretation. https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/06/01/alligator-Lake-Havasu-City-Bridgewater-Channel-Arizona-beaver/4591685637386/

Go-Pro bear spy

A couple in Connecticut who are accused of regularly attracting bears to their yard by feeding them, allege that wildlife officials attached a camera to bear in order to spy on them. They have sued the state wildlife agency for violation of their 4th Amendment rights against unreasonable search of their property. The bear visiting their property has been tagged and wears a tracking collar. The couple said the collar had a camera. The officials say there is already video showing that people feed bears. It’s unclear, but unlikely, that the video came from spy bears. https://www.ctinsider.com/connecticut/article/couple-lawsuit-bear-camera-4th-amendment-18131994.php

Can’t imagine what it must be like to work at this place even under good conditions

Imagine you work at a mismanaged food service facility where food is rotting. You complain and you are greeting one day with rotten food set up just for you. Same deal here but exponentially worse: A man who works at a nonprofit facility that receives and prepares donations of human bodies and parts for scientific study came to work one day to find three heads on his desk. He thinks it’s retaliation for his complaints to officials about the bad conditions in the facility. https://lawandcrime.com/crazy/nonprofit-employee-says-he-found-3-severed-heads-at-desk-and-sage-burning-after-filing-workplace-complaints/

Play the odds on miracles

Pope Francis made a statement about the reality of miracles by saying apparitions of the Virgin Mary are “not always real”. He explained that the Madonna would not call attention to herself so blatantly as people allege. There are countless cases of charlatans or well-meaning pious frauds claiming they have witnessed miraculous appearances or weeping statues. The statement comes as residents of Trevignano called on the Pope and religious leaders to do something to halt the claims of Maria Giuseppe Scarpulla, who holds monthly ceremonies in a park where a statue of the Virgin Mary is said to weep tears of blood and give out messages. Scarpulla was previously identified as taking donations but remains steadfast that the holy mother communicates with her. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/04/virgin-mary-apparitions-not-always-real-says-pope-francis

Finally, a few mystery booms this week that aren’t that mysterious

Sonic boom after air chase in restricted area

Many "mystery booms" are the result of undisclosed or unauthorized supersonic military aircraft. This time, it was disclosed and authorized due to the emergency situation of an aircraft flying over restricted airspace over Washington, DC. Military F-16s were scrambled to intercept the plane that later crashed in Virginia killing all passengers. A sonic boom was heard in a wide area. Before the cause was identified, people took to wildly speculating based on the cultural hot topics of the time including mystery booms as something other than mundane. The leading idea for the cause of the plane to go off course and later crash is that it lost pressurization which caused a lack of oxygen that led to unconsciousness. This can happen gradually so ground officials were not notified the plane was in trouble. https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/local-news/mystery-boom-maryland-WJI34WXX65HLZF7HHIXACYFCYA/

Kerala booms

A village in Kerala India experienced loud booming sounds from underground. Authorities are investigating. No earthquakes were recorded. Earthquakes here happen but are usually not very strong. So there is a possibility that the booming sounds were small shallow earthquakes that generated sound but not earth motion because the energy went into the atmosphere. https://www.ndtv.com/kerala-news/mysterious-loud-underground-sounds-trouble-kerala-village-experts-called-to-inspect-report-4087671

Thanks for reading!