Weekly Weird News for October 8, 2021
Weird finds, metal munchies, more zebras
Welcome to another week of weird news. I found so many stories that I had to free some into the wild (my Twitter feed) because I ran out of room. I'd like to keep the newsletter length manageable. This week, we have two big updates and a theme of metal ingestion. There was some bad news for one of biggest loudmouth liars ever. And, plenty of stories that remain mysterious.
What is with the escaping zebras?
Here we go AGAIN, this time in Illinois.
Two zebras from a pumpkin farm zoo escaped and ran around the fields and onto roads. The animals were safely corralled after two hours. https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20211005/stray-zebras-from-goebberts-pumpkin-patch-cause-two-hour-chase-near-pingree-grove
The marauding zebras in Maryland must be significantly more wiley. I told you about the group of escaped animals in the Weekly Weird News letter of September 10. They escaped on August 31. This herd of five has yet to be caught. They are eating up the food provided but efforts to corral them have failed. Zebras can survive the winter outside just fine if things don't get too bad. But having wild animals on the loose is still troubling. https://dcist.com/story/21/09/28/zebras-escaped-prince-georges-county/
Mystery creatures possibly identified
Another update: Way back on Aug 6 I included a video of mysterious ocean creatures in waters off Japan that could not be identified by experts. Then, thanks to Twitter, the possible answer emerged, quite literally, from an experiment with snails. Similar animals in the snail experiment appeared to be trematodes (flukes), parasites that live inside other animals (like snails). The worm-like creatures matched well with what was seen in the mystery video and images. So, it appears that the animals' free-swimming larvae act as fishing lures - they wanted to be eaten!
Thanks to Cameron McCormick for the heads-up on this find!
Alex Jones loses lawsuits
A judge issued a default judgment that conspiracy-promoting media host Alex Jones was liable for damages caused to parents as he continually pushed the idea that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax and their kids didn’t die. It’s hard to get much more ugly than telling a parent they are lying that their young children were brutally murdered. But Jones and the Infowars media company made a ton of money off these sick lies. A jury in Texas will now determine how much he will owe the plaintiffs in both cases.
Huff Post broke the story: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alex-jones-lost-two-sandy-hook-cases_n_61561020e4b008640eb1d56a
The Washington Post has more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/10/01/alex-jones-sandy-hook-lawsuits/
A third suit, in Connecticut, also went against Jones this week: https://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Third-Sandy-Hook-parent-wins-defamation-suit-16511363.php
Jones’ lawyer (he went through a parade of them) said about the decisions: “the First Amendment was crucified today”. More lies. Jones lost the suit so neatly because the defendants “unreasonably and vexatiously failed to comply with their discovery duties”. In other words, they didn’t cooperate. At all. Did Jones think he was above the law? Or is the show all he has? Let’s hope this scumbag’s career of peddling hate is over.
Zodiac killer accusation by online investigation group
Not so fast. This “killer IDed” headline was all over the news this week but a few more careful readers noted that this does not solve the case. A group of former law enforcement officers and investigators called the Case Breakers pooled their efforts and came up with the identification based on what they say is new evidence they found. The FBI and San Francisco police department are not convinced, saying that the investigation was still open. They had additional information. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/08/zodiac-killer-investigation
A self-proclaimed “elite” team of sleuths doesn’t have a better chance of solving a cold case than the police do. It’s not that they couldn’t help but it’s irresponsible to accuse a person of a heinous crime in public without a considerable backup. Previously, the same Case Breakers accused a man of being the infamous hijacker D.B. Cooper. The accusation caused problems and was never proven. As with this latest accusation, the person accused is not around to defend himself. This kind of public shoutout is not a wise idea.
Rundown of weird finds for the week
Police found a finger in Southampton, UK. A man suffered the injury after scaling a fence in a parking area. Eww. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-58780921
A Burmese python shows up on a back porch in Marietta, Georgia. It was safely caught and clearly an escaped pet. https://www.cbs46.com/news/marietta-father-and-son-find-burmese-python-in-their-backyard/article_af79beb6-2715-11ec-8bc0-e7c06589a713.html
A cow was running through midtown Philly. It's still unclear where it came from. The owner claimed it. https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2021/10/06/philadelphia-center-city-broad-street-cow-loose/
A 6 yr old finds a 12,000-year-old mastodon tooth in Michigan while on a walk. It's been donated to the U. of Michigan museum. https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2021/09/mastodon-tooth-found-by-6-year-old-on-a-hike-hes-donating-it-to-the-university-of-michigan.html
A mannequin left behind from a movie shoot on a cliff in southern California was "rescued" by emergency personnel. The rescuers didn't fault the 911 caller. https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/10/06/Santa-Barbara-County-Fire-Department-cliff-mannequin/5021633549026/
The eagle returns
A Steller's sea eagle escaped from the National Aviary in Pittsburgh and went missing. The predatory bird with a 6-ft wingspan, native to Russia and east Asia, was spotted in a residential area and keepers were able to retrieve "Kody" and bring him back to safety. https://www.aviary.org/birds-habitats/kodiak-the-stellers-sea-eagle/
Parental fights about vaccinating the kids
This is unsurprising and far more common than you think. But in today's COVID environment, legal advisors have experienced a huge uptick in inquiries. When parents share legal custody, regardless of whom the child lives with, the parents must agree on issues like education, religious upbringing and medical care. Wow. Those are HUGE issues. The kids suffer. Some parents are taking their spouses to court to fight for or against vaccination. In most cases, the judge usually sides with the vaccinating parent. https://www.boston.com/news/coronavirus/2021/10/07/divorced-parents-are-going-to-court-over-vaccinating-their-kids-against-the-coronavirus/
Man sues psychic
This is brilliant: A California man is suing a psychic who he says falsely claimed she could remove a curse put on his marriage by a witch hired by his ex-girlfriend. Isn’t that every psychic who talks about curses? He paid the psychic, whom he thought was a “PhD life coach” and his marriage still fell apart. Gee, maybe a “curse” being the cause of his troubles is stretching it. A marriage counselor would have been cheaper. I’m not sure how this will play out, but it’s interesting to watch. It’s hard to care how it falls - both sides are absurd. The solution is obvious, don’t pay psychics a lot of money. No word on the old girlfriend or why she wasn’t sued too. https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/man-sues-psychic-who-allegedly-promised-to-remove-curse-for-5100/2707289/
Very weird rain Part 1
Italy experienced a record-breaking rainfall event. Over 29 inches (742 mm) of rain fell in just 12 hours in northern Italy, hitting a new European mark for the highest 12-hour rainfall on record. 36 inches (925 mm) fell in the town of Rossiglione over a 24 hr period. That's FEET of rainfall. And, Tropical Cyclone Shaheen pounded the desert of Oman where more than 3 years' worth of rain fell in 6 hours. Welcome to the weird world of climate change. https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/06/weather/italy-flood-oman-climate-change/index.html
Very weird rain Part 2
If you've never seen coordinated drone displays, you are missing something amazing. But earlier this month, in China, a drone display went horribly wrong and the drones fell like blue drops of rain from the sky onto spectators and cars. It's unclear if there was a software malfunction or if the signals to the drones were deliberately sabotaged. https://www.autoevolution.com/news/light-show-in-china-may-have-been-sabotaged-dozens-of-drones-fell-from-the-sky-170962.html
Heavy metal munchies
There was an array of stories this week about people ingesting metal objects. I don’t know why.
TikTok trends strike again! The video social media platform TikTok can propel scare lore stories to go viral, and then people may imitate what they see, making what was fake now real. Imitation of video trends across the board are typical. Sadly, it's not just people lip-synching and dancing, but they also try "challenges". Remember the tide-pod, ice bucket, and cinnamon challenges? If you said no, lucky you. They were dumb stunts. I found two stories this week about children imitating a dangerous activity popularized in TikTok vids where children put tiny magnets in their mouths to look like piercings. Unfortunately, these kids swallowed the magnets.
A 9 yr old boy from Stirling, had to have his appendix and parts of his bowel removed after he swallowed multiple tiny magnets. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-58565720
A 6 yr old girl from Lewes swallowed 23 of the magnets. She said she liked the way they felt in her mouth and had been using them to make jewelry. These magnetic balls cling together in the digestive system and can't be passed out. They required major surgery to remove. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-58680103
It's not clear if either child did these deliberately in response to the viral videos but the videos themselves will make the magnets more popular and likely to be used inappropriately by children who don't realize their danger.
A man in Lithuania quit drinking alcohol and took up eating metal pieces. I don't think that was an improvement. He ate screws, nuts, and bolts for a month and had to have surgery to remove them. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58771370
Can the average cheer mom create ‘deepfakes’?
Here is a crazy, long-read feature about how ubiquitous the idea of "faking" media is in our culture and how easy it is to twist and manipulate a narrative. In the high-pressure world of the high school cheer team, a drama unfolds. Videos surfaced of a team member doing scandalous things. She denies it and asserts the videos have been manipulated to show her face; in other words, they are “deepfakes”. Another mom is charged with harassment. But the police were ignorant about deepfakes and assumed that this accused mom could do this level of video editing with simple tools. Making highly edited videos that insert someone else's image to look realistic is beyond the capability of almost everyone, even with expensive software. The truth of this story was far more simple. https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a37377027/deep-fake-cheer-scandal/
Tainted candy fears -- it's that time of year again
Halloween is approaching and the scare from the last few years has resurfaced thanks to your local law enforcement: drug-tainted candy. Check out this edition of Sharon's Strange Times for more. If you are not subscribed to both newsletters, please consider doing so.
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