Weekly Weird News for July 16, 2021
Weird weather, plagues, curses, and anomalous discoveries
This week’s stories were a whole lot of fun. I curate the links so you only get the most interesting ones that perhaps you missed. This week, still 100% UFO free but, interestingly, several of the stories were related to weird weather. Take some time to click on the links that grab your attention and read more of the story. It’s always heartening to see a local source or a major outlet do a good job in covering a story. If they don’t, I surely let you know!
Mansion "washed up on shore" is entirely misrepresented by, you guessed it, TikTok.
La Puntilla beach in El Salvador became super-popular on TikTok this week when an uploader shared images of an abandoned house on the beach. Titled as "Villa mysteriously washes up on beach,” the narrative suggested that a strong storm washed the stone building ashore. But that’s nonsense. Sadly, the weather site, Accuweather didn’t help by repeating the manufactured story. In fact, it was always there. 25 years ago, it was Hotel Puerto Ventura that was deliberately built several meters into the beach. The relentless sea would not have it. https://www.accuweather.com/en/travel/mysterious-ruins-on-el-salvador-beach-captivate-onlookers/977543
Lightning strikes golf ball a second after being launched in driving range. Or did it?
Needless to say, this was a dramatic and terrifying event for onlookers who captured it on camera. After Tomas Gomez, 18, hit a ball at Topgolf in Charlotte, Texas, during a storm, a lightning bolt appeared to hit the ball in mid-air. This conclusion was splattered all over the news but it’s questionable. Why would the charge hit the ball? The lightning needs to discharge into the ground. Some experts think it was not the ball that was hit but a distant poll instead. Even if the bolt hit the ball, it would have continued to the ground. That’s an interesting coincidence in time and visual perspective. On the other hand, some think the ball was hit and ended up as the catalyst for the strike - being the mid-air contact between the ground charge and the air discharge. It's unclear but very very interesting. This is a great anomaly captured on video. Unfortunately, we just didn't get enough detail to determine what really happened here. Newsweek reports that the ball was later found, turned black. Topgolf tried to capitalize on the event but was also criticized because it was clearly dangerous for patrons to still be holding metal clubs during an electrical storm. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/07/15/lightning-topgolf-strike-ball/
Swarms of locusts in the western US
You've undoubtedly heard of the extreme drought in the Western US. Some states have been infested, dare I say "plagued" by the dry-weather-loving grasshoppers. They descend in great numbers to devour crops. They eat a lot and they waste even more, making a crop unharvestable. Pesticides do work, even in low amounts but the insects are so mobile. Eventually, they will die from starvation or a weather event. But expect more detrimental side effects like this from climate change. https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/grasshoppers-drought-farming-west-swarms.html
Return of the glacier worms
Inch-long black worms emerge on glaciers in the summer. Billions of these organisms show that the glaciers aren't devoid of life. Only a few researchers have ever studied these enigmatic animals. The ice worm phenomenon shows that there are still countless natural discoveries yet to be made. More on the ice worm project here.
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/13/1011376403/its-summer-and-that-means-the-mysterious-return-of-glacier-ice-worms
Mystery seeds explained. Maybe.
In what is possibly the most complex and fascinating story of the week - thousands of mystery seed packets from China are delivered to US mailboxes. What’s going on?
This is not a new story but this is a new and commendable investigation of it. It's fascinating! Many people in the US received unsolicited packages labeled as something other than what they were. Inside were seeds of Chinese origin. In the time of COVID and invasive species, the last thing anyone should do is to open a mystery package from China. This article from The Atlantic explains the probable truth behind the mystery seeds. But no one wants to believe it. Officials didn't take this issue seriously at first. Over 1000 packages were collected and government botanists identified some 560 different species of seeds after they germinated them in secure settings. Eventually, 19,841 seed packs were collected by the USDA.
The seed deliveries appeared to have been a "brushing" scam where people get goods they didn't order. Alternatively, they DID order them... and forgot. Grab a drink and check out this amazing long read in The Atlantic. It's WEIRD. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/07/unsolicited-seeds-china-brushing/619417/
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is suffering from an epic case of hiccups
The conservative leader was admitted to the hospital with abdominal pain after experiencing hiccups for more than 10 days. He's been recently experiencing bouts of illness. His public image is very negative after his poor handling of the COVID pandemic. A controversial figure compared with Donald Trump, he’s been labeled as "the most misogynistic, hateful elected official in the democratic world". One who is prone to superstition might wonder if he was "cursed" with this plague of hiccups. One might also not have much sympathy for his plight. More current reports, however, say he is doing better.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/14/bolsonaro-brazil-hospital-hiccups
The Tokugawa curse haunts the summer Olympics in Japan
187 human bodies had been excavated between 2013 and 2015 from the construction site of Tokyo’s Olympic stadium. The construction went overbudget. The events were delayed by a pandemic. Now, spectators won’t be allowed to participate and the traffic tunnel constructed under a cemetery will remain underused. Construction marred the old city that existed here. Some people think that a curse emanating from an early ruling family is to blame for all this misfortune.
No. But things certainly were not handled well leading to bad outcomes. Don't push the blame onto a curse when human error accounts for the problem. https://theworldnews.net/jp-news/about-that-ancient-japanese-curse-that-looms-over-the-tokyo-olympics
Don't ever dump your pets in the wild. Ever.
For just one example on display this week in Minnesota, goldfish will keep growing. And growing. A football-sized goldfish was retrieved from a lake. And it was the new home to not just one either. Goldfish are very hardy and dirty fish, eating anything and fouling the water. They can survive even this harsh winter. Non-native animals unbalance the local environment. Any goldfish found in natural waterways are pests and are destroyed. It is illegal to release non-native pets into the wild. https://www.startribune.com/football-sized-goldfish-found-in-burnsville-lake-prompting-plea-not-to-dump-pets/600077430/
A mysterious cache of bowling balls
A man was demolishing the back steps of his house in Michigan and discovered 160 buried bowling balls. That is WEIRD. The balls were dated from the 1950s and were not toxic. It turns out that workers at the local Brunswick bowling ball plant could have used the balls for easy-draining fill. https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/07/11/muskegon-county-man-finds-158-bowling-balls-under-back-step/7905890002/
