Weekly Weird News for November 19, 2021
Strange waves of sound and water
Thanks for joining me for another edition of Weekly Weird News where I collect some offbeat or fringe news stories that you may have missed from the week past. As always, if you like this newsletter, please pass it on to people who you think might also enjoy this or share on social media. This week we have plenty of animal-related stories, a few mystery booms, some big waves and ghosts. I hope you enjoy!
Scorpions injure hundreds in Egypt but didn’t kill people
It is common for venomous animals to come into contact with people during flooding events as they are forced to seek out the limited higher, drier ground. Spiders and snakes as well as other dangerous animals can add to the hazards for people dealing with heavy rain events. Storms and flooding in Egypt caused a mass movement of scorpions into people’s homes earlier this month resulting in hundreds of people getting stung. Early news headlines reported that three people died as a result. This turns out to be false. People are typically treated with antivenom. Three deaths were later attributed to electrocution when a soldiers’ camp was flooded. As I noticed a lot with these stories, the theme is that these are “earth changes” that are heralding End Times. In a secular way, that is true. Global warming is increasing catastrophic flooding events and straining the human relationship with problematic wildlife. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-59274686
Deer sought refuge in a church
Some animals seek to avoid humans in general. What better sanctuary than God’s house. Keepers of a church in Michigan were shocked to find a large buck deer roaming the church on the first day of firearm deer hunting season. The animal jumped through a window to enter. After trying to escape by various means, the animal exited the same way he came. He had not been shot. https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2021/11/pastors-find-10-point-buck-in-church-on-opening-day-of-deer-hunting-season.html See the video on Facebook here.
French UF-hoax
A UFO sighting that got several news outlets in France pretty buzzed last week was a hoax done via a drone with a light bar and some willing accomplices. The YouTube comedian who pulled off the stunt. Two others posed as serious witnesses or experts who filmed the event, posted the videos, and pretended to be “weather officials”. As if the world needs reminding… much of what you see on social media is faked or contrived in some manner to garner attention. https://www-leparisien-fr.translate.goog/video/video-ovnis-filmes-en-occitanie-lenorme-canular-de-remi-gaillard-15-11-2021-WT4OJMDR4NEGJKDJEDP5DNQEFU.php
Hacker exposes FBI vulnerability
A hacker sent tens of thousands of emails from an official FBI server with the intent of showing how this system was compromised and could be abused. The email had a legitimate header from inside the agency’s system. The hacker noted that this vulnerability could have been used to solicit data illegally. The FBI took the hardware offline. It’s disconcerting that many government offices don’t seem to be up to date on security. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/11/hoax-email-blast-abused-poor-coding-in-fbi-website/
The grief-stricken can call the dead
This is an amazing story. An old phone, connected to nothing, in a quiet forest setting, has become a way for people to call their dead loved ones and express their grief. What began in Japan as a way to deal with those lost in the tsunami in 2011 has come to the US northwest. People take comfort in the sound of the wind and imagine they can hear a recipient talking from the other side. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/telephone-of-the-wind/
Certified NOT haunted
In the US, some places desire the title of being “most haunted” but houses in China where a death has taken place are stigmatized and won’t sell. Call in the anti-Ghost Hunters, who will certify a place “not haunted” so it can be sold at a greater value. https://www.asiaone.com/china/people-china-are-hiring-freelancers-prove-property-not-haunted
Big cats affected by COVID-19
In the news this week, there appears to be an uptick in the effect of COVID on zoo animals, particularly big cats. Cats seem to be susceptible. Three snow leopards died in a Nebraska zoo after contracting the disease. They were expected to recover but didn’t. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-deaths-snow-leopards-nebraska-zoo/
Meanwhile, eight animals at St. Louis zoo have tested positive. http://stltoday.com/news/local/metro/eight-big-cats-at-st-louis-zoo-test-positive-for-coronavirus/article_3912b022-8be6-5514-8080-24a68b287573.html
Zoos are ratcheting up procedures and some are looking at an experimental vaccine to protect their valuable tenants. https://www.kwtx.com/2021/11/17/central-texas-zoo-officials-alert-following-uptick-big-cat-covid-cases-nationwide/
Mysterious metal box
A 20-ft long metal object washed up on the beach at Canaveral National Seashore in Florida leaving viewers wondering what it could be. Visitors were kept at a distance until authorities figured that it could be a ballast tank from an old ship. The object will be difficult to remove. It’s hard to tell if more junk is washing up on beaches or we just hear about them because of social media and news coverage. I think it’s the latter. Often the real explanation is buried in lieu of the excited and speculative guesses. https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/11/12/metal-box-mystery-how-did-this-thing-get-on-a-florida-beach/
Southern California reports another mystery boom
Residents along the coasts in Orange and San Diego County, California heard a loud boom early Monday morning. Many naturally thought it was an earthquake while others speculated it could have been a sonic boom from a jet. Some people said it was a double boom (which suggests a sonic boom event). The local news reached out to Camp Pendleton who said there was no activity on their end to cause the noise. They also checked with the US space command who said incoming debris from the Russian missile test was also not implicated in the explosion noise because the timing was not right. The cause is still unknown but no earthquake was recorded. https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2021/11/15/mysterious-loud-boom-and-rattling-felt-along-orange-and-san-diego-county-coastlines-early-monday-morning/
…and another boom rattles Massachusetts
On Wednesday night, residents all around Stow, MA reported a rumble and boom. Emergency officials here and in neighboring towns reported a flood of calls. People went to social media speculating what it could be. Many thought it could be a meteor explosion like that which occurred in October in New Hampshire or a shallow earthquake like the swarm that shook Peabody, Mass earlier this year. But no evidence of either has turned up. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/11/18/metro/mysterious-boom-heard-parts-massachusetts/
For a comprehensive rundown of mystery booms, see my new piece at Spooky Geology: Mystery Booms and Skyquakes.
Elephants may be increasingly genetically predisposed to not have tusks
In elephants, even the females grow the elongated teeth called tusks, which have historically made the animal a valuable commodity when dead. The value of the ivory tusks meant that animals with large ones were killed before they grew old. Thus, animals that did not have tusks were less likely to be killed and could potentially reproduce more. This human-driven evolutionary change is bolstered by a recent genetic study. https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/has-ivory-poaching-triggered-the-evolution-of-tuskless-elephants/
Heavenly cloth falls in Nigeria
A piece of cloth fell from the sky onto a crowd in Nigeria who believed the material was endowed with spiritual power. The people did not know that the cloth had blown away from a decorator who left it out to dry. Even when the truth was revealed, it didn’t matter. The 120-yard cloth had been ripped apart and taken by the crowd. It’s always a bit icky to report on stories like these that promote the narrative that a population is so fraught with superstitious beliefs that the people act in an extreme way. Often these stories come from rural, economically depressed areas. It could be that the villagers were simply excited to have interesting and free cloth from the sky. Or, they considered it a blessing. https://www.legit.ng/nigeria/1442962-mysterious-cloth-fell-sky-ondo-truth-finally-emerges/
Opportunistic pythons
Non-native pythons have naturalized extremely well in Florida to the point where there are hunts to cull the numbers. Last week, a crew on a sailboat found a 7 ft snake that had hitched a ride from Indian Key to the mainland. It wasn’t the first time a snake snuck onto a boat and took a ride. Pythons are a serious threat to native mammals and birds as well as domestic animals and, potentially, small children. https://apnews.com/article/florida-snakes-29d40d25cd38e5faf8dab1cbb7c096d3
High tides wash into Ghana
Exceptionally high tides due to the moon phase and seasonal effects are becoming more prevalent in Ghana's coastal areas pushing people from their homes. In the past few weeks, rains, rising sea levels, and the destruction of coastal swamps have resulted in flooding that displaced 4,000 people, destroyed community buildings and exposed graves. A similar catastrophe happened in June. This loss of livable land along coastal areas worldwide will continue as global warming effects become more pronounced. http://newsghana.com.gh/holistic-approach-needed-to-curb-tidal-wave-menace/ and https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211110-almost-4-000-people-displaced-by-tidal-surge-in-ghana
Rogue wave in Washington nearly fatal to two women
A young couple visiting from Oklahoma experienced a horrific nightmare when a rogue wave 6 feet high hit them. The unexpected wall of water carried debris and nearly drowned the women. Both were in critical condition at the tiny local hospital before they had to be moved to a trauma hospital. A storm (that may have contributed to the unusual freak wave) caused havoc in their transport. Both broke their pelvis and had internal bleeding from the incident. Rogue waves are unpredictably large waves often caused when two or more waves combine. https://okcfox.com/amp/news/local/rogue-wave-severely-injures-oklahoma-city-couple-while-on-birthday-trip-to-washington
Search underway in New Jersey for Jimmy Hoffa
The FBI received a tip from a man whose father said, on his deathbed, that he had buried the body of the infamous union boss in a steel drum in a Jersey City landfill. Agents conducted a search of the former landfill site in late October but have not revealed the results. Experts on the Hoffa case say the new lead is very credible. Hoffa’s disappearance in 1975 has been the subject of endless rumors and jokes. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/18/nyregion/jimmy-hoffa-fbi-investigation.html
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