Weekly Weird News for August 6, 2021
Misinformation spreads like a virus
Hey everybody. Here’s another rundown of my list of weird news stories spotted this week. As always, it’s curated to reflect recent news that you may have missed in your standard news feeds. Enjoy!
It’s snowing in Brazil
Let's start off not with the heat and fires but with snow in Brazil. It's winter in the southern hemisphere but this is not usual. The snow and freezing rain came from an Antarctic cold blast. Up to an inch fell in places where people have never seen snow in their lifetime. The cold threatened crops like coffee and oranges. But generally, the public thought it was, well, cool. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/rare-snowfall-blankets-cities-across-brazil-180978339/
Geese fly upside down
Here's a fun photo - a goose flying upside. It's not a 'shopped photo. It's not the first time this has been documented. Geese and other birds pull this stunt, called whiffling, with some regularity perhaps as a means to escape predators or just to show off. The amateur photographer was accused of faking this but experts confirmed that it's a known behavior but they are not really sure why some birds do it. In any event, it was a lucky shot. https://wgme.com/news/offbeat/goose-flying-upside-down-is-simply-showing-off-say-experts
‘Swatting’ directly contributed to a death and a 5-yr jail sentence
Here's a crazy story of a guy who was targeted because he wouldn't sell his Twitter handle. Back in April 2020, Mark Herring's home was swarmed by police who received a report of a shooting. Faced with the extreme stress of the accusation at gunpoint, the incident caused Herring to have a heart attack. He died. The call had come from a 20-year-old who faked the information as a way to harass Herring in a ploy called "swatting". The "swatter" and other accomplices used fake calls and other harassment as threats to get the victims to relinquish valuable social media handles. The accused, from the UK, pleaded guilty in Tennessee to federal charges of conspiracy and was sentenced to 5 years in prison. He is said to have suffered from mental illness. Swatting harassment continues around the world. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/us/mark-herring-swatting-tennessee.html
Yellowstone shaking
In US earthquake news, Yellowstone has been rumbly this past month. More than 1000 small quakes were recorded in July. Geologists attribute the quakes at the densely monitored caldera to water. Faults move a bit more easily when water is added, thereby decreasing the pore pressure and allowing the sticky areas to move a bit more easily. The quakes are not due to magma moving and the supervolcano shows no signs that even hint of a growing threat of eruption. A giant eruption would be proceeded by significant and prolonged activity including the ground rising. https://amp.idahostatesman.com/news/nation-world/national/article253219593.html
Black plague detected in Lake Tahoe animal
California officials closed parts of Lake Tahoe as a precaution when the bubonic plague was detected in a chipmunk. Yes, that plague, rare but highly contagious. The fleas on the dead animal were infected with the disease as well as the specimen. Fleas can transmit the disease. While rare, several animals do become infected and even occasionally a person will catch it. It is treated with antibiotics. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/us/chipmunks-bubonic-plague-tahoe-ca.html
La Llorona sightings in Texas
A paranormal research group interested in the local legend of classic ghost woman in white have prompted people to come forward in Laredo, TX with their stories about seeing the figure on a lonely road at night near water or after a rain. The evidence of the sightings is less than convincing. The La Llorona legend tells of a woman who drowned her children and now weeps and calls for them. A few things seem evident in this story. First, people were prompted to tell their stories. Therefore, any unusual sightings, including the photo, were interpreted as related. The clue that the entity appears after a rain suggests many sightings could be light reflections. The paranormal researcher interviewed repeats ghost hunting tropes such as “energies attracted to water” and the suggestion that investigators get out there with equipment. Then, believers seek out other explanations for why the latest sightings don’t match with the traditional tale that she speaks. And, they attempt to attribute increased reports of paranormal activity to a rise in events when none of these events have been confirmed as being unusual or investigated at all. They are only personal accounts. The reality is that no equipment can detect ghosts. La Llorona is a sad story that has grown into an important touchpoint and legend for the area. She won’t go away quietly but will keep appearing because people look for her. https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/None-other-than-La-Llorona-Ghost-sightings-16341099.php
Trespassing ghost hunters
A news brief from Buffalo NY reveals that a woman injured in an old building was trespassing with the intent of “ghost hunting”. She fell through a roof at the Buffalo Central Terminal at 10:30 PM. There are countless examples of paranormal enthusiasts trespassing onto private property or into dangerous structures without permission and proper precautions. Rarely are charges filed against these people. They should be. Curiosity grants you no extra rights to trespass. https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/woman-hurt-after-falling-through-sub-station-roof-inside-buffalo-central-terminal
Drone sightings shrugged off by officials in Colorado
As mentioned in previous Weekly Weird News roundups, Colorado residents have experienced what they claim are harassment and surveillance by high-tech drones. Surprisingly, the flap of evil drones was not mentioned in the recent governmental report on UAPs. The UAP investigator in this local story thinks that the drones are focused on nuclear installations. Documents released under FOIA requests show that the military officials were quiet about the drone incidents near their facilities and that the FAA staff investigating the claims didn’t get anywhere. Residents and amateur investigators are perplexed that nothing was found and that the officials “shrugged” it off. Could it be that mysterious drone sightings don’t stand up to critical scrutiny? Like it or not, this is a more plausible situation than a cover up. It’s reasonable that drones are out there but what’s also clear is that people mistake other objects in the sky – like planes, helicopters, and planets – for drones. https://www.kunc.org/news/2021-07-25/documents-indicate-how-little-officials-knew-about-mysterious-drones-last-year
Abducted by mermaids
When we hear strange news from other countries, we will apply our own frames of reference to the interpretation. For some tales, our frames of reference simply can’t be used because they are too unlike that of the local culture. In this story, from Zimbabwe, the entire story is told via the local supernatural belief system and there is almost no way to understand it. People believe that mermaids in the river are drowning people. Nine people went into the Musogwezi River for an exorcism and baptism because a prophet claimed to have found bones and that person was haunting a family. While in the water, they started speaking in tongues and heard noises. Mysterious forces pushed them into the water and some drowned. The group believed the lost had been taken by mermaids. A spirit medium was called in. Days later, the first body washed up. When the facts are bound up entirely within culturally descriptive belief systems, it’s not possible to make objective conclusions about the story. https://news.pindula.co.zw/2021/08/02/survivor-of-musogwezi-river-mermaids-saga-narrates-ordeal/
The Mercola Virus
Joe Mercola is one of the world’s biggest promoters of dangerous health misinformation including regarding COVID. He’s antivax, pimps useless supplements, and promotes a boatload of false claims in the guise of alternative medicine. His sites have been banned from social media because of this and he's one of the 12 people identified as posting over 65% of all the antivaccine messages on social media. Yet, he seems to have come up with a ploy to avoid takedowns of his work. He said that his posts would be deleted on his website 48 hours after publishing them, calling on his supporters to disseminate it, and then the source would be dead. Kind of like how a virus works...hmm, funny.
It would be best if Mercola’s lies and misinformation weren’t given a platform at all. Best practices regarding health information or almost any scientific subject are to look for and follow a consensus of experts, not lone quacks and cranks saying they know what the established experts don’t. Ironically, the best way to stop the spread of misinformation is to innoculate people against it. Give them good information early and show them how to spot pseudoscience and lies. Unfortunately, the means to do this through schools and outreach has fared even worse than the COVID vaccines. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/2020-election-misinformation-distortions#joseph-mercola-disinformation
Weird animals recorded in Japan
Here are two Twitter posts by professionals who can’t figure out what these bizarre animals are spotted alive off the coast of Japan recently.
