Archive page 113
You Will Believe A Squid Can Fly…
Want to hear something awesome? Squids can squirt their way out of the water engaging in what many marine biologists classify as flight. The phenomenon was so random that little photographic evidence existed of the practice. New proof...
Ladies & Gentleman: The Anti-Laser
My feeble brain can’t process how this could be used, but I’m pretty sure it’s awesome. “It’s kind of surprising that we’ve been using lasers for 50 years or so, and only now somebody noticed something pretty fundamental,” says Marin...
It’s People! The Ebola Virus Is Made From People!
Guess what’s lurking in your genome? Bits of Ebola and other viruses! Happy Friday! Viruses do not make good fossils. But advances in genomic technology have allowed scientists to peer into the genetic material of viruses and their hosts...
How Humans Can Mind Meld! Also, A Flying Donkey! [WeirdThingsTV]
Podcast: Gay for science
Kidnapped by scientists who dress like Nazis, but aren’t actually Nazis, the trio is pushed to try a radical new procedure that would make them temporarily gay. With the life of a young child on the line, they have to confront their own...
Mapping Out The Evolutionary Path Necessary To Create A Dragon
You want dragon? Here is how you’d make one with revisionist evolution… [Pop Sci]
Revise Your 172-Year Plan, Asteroid-Enhanced Death Looms
there is a one in a thousand chance that WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE BY THE CRUSHING BLOW OF AN ASTEROID. the probability of IT KILLING US ALL BY REIGNING UNHOLY DESTRUCTION FROM SPACE is about one in one thousand. however, half of that...
NASA Revisiting Magnetic Shield Assumptions, Could Force Fields Happen?
A Portuguese professor believes force fields enveloping space ships that take us to Mars could be a reality. …a mini-magnetosphere stretching a few hundred metres beyond the craft could be used in conjunction with the heavy shields that...
Mind Melding Is Real
Humans effectively synchronize brain wave patterns when telling a story to one another. Look Spock, no hands! [New Scientist via Kruzweil]
Dead Sea Scroll Mystery Solved?
National Geogrphic has some really interesting historical findings on where the Dead Sea Scrolls might have originated. Also: And on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion, archaeologists recently discovered and deciphered a two-thousand-year-old cup with...
300 Gators Freaking Out!
Low water level + tons of snacks = 300 Gators freaking the hell out in a random Georgia canal while a fisherman slowly cuts through them on his way to fish. [CNN]
Man Devoured Alive By Maggots While Partner Sleeps Next To HIm
Remember the 1995 Sandra Bullock romantic comedy While You Were Sleeping? This story is nothing like that. Paramedics in Vienna had a shock when they answered a call – and found a man “eaten alive” by maggots. Ambulance crew were called...
Divers Explore Mayan Hellmouths
Who’s got two thumbs and wants to get all up in some sacred Mayan pools once believed to be portals to the underworld where offerings were dropped down to appease the evil forces waiting below? These guys! Steering clear of crocodiles and...
New Crater Suggests Our Looming Death From Above Could Be Larger, Harder
A research team in Egypt has identified a “fresh” crater thought to be formed by a crashed iron meteor, could mean incoming space rocks would hit earth in bigger chunks than we once suspected. The Italian-Egyptian team that found the...
Weird Things Book Club: Dawkins Sees A Double Rainbow
Justin Robert Young: Issac Asimov’s Foundation (Foundation Novels) Brian Brushwood: Peter F. Hamilton’s The Reality Dysfunction (The Night’s Dawn) Andrew Mayne: Matthew Ridley’s The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves Karen...
Octopus Found With Sub-Zero Venom
File this under “Things We Didn’t Know Were Super Cool Until We Heard It Was Real”: HONG KONG (Reuters) – Researchers have discovered four new species of octopus in Antarctica with venom that works at sub-zero temperatures. They hope to...
Darth Vader Robs Long Island Bank
Darth Vader robbed a bank in Long Island. Don’t you know it’s hard out here for a Sith? Hustle & Force. Point Bespin. I’ll stop now. Thanks to Weird Things friends Katy and Lawrence for making sure this came our way. [Daily Mail]
How we plan to protect you from all the wicked evil demonic ghosts we’re going to capture
So Justin Robert Young and I have been scoping out murder scenes, ancient burial grounds and sites of all out massacres in research for our Weird Things Live project (where we investigate paranormal phenomena in front of a live internet...
Our Best Defense Against Chinese UFOs Revealed! [WeirdThingsTV]
Podcast: Dawkins sees a Double Rainbow
Special guest Dr. Karen Stollznow helps the gang plan a heist for a sacred Yeti paw. Brian and Justin get enormous glee from watching Andrew get corrected. The ethics of eating canned whale meat is debated. We also find out how ready and...