Without delving into the debate on how it’s happening, most reasonable people can agree the world is getting warmer.

If we want it cooler, we are going to have to do something about it. Sure, we could all drive electric cars to our self-sustaining farm communes where we split an organic zucchini soufflé with Ed Begley, Jr. Or we can just stick a hose in the air (as if we don’t ca-re) and pump sulfates into the atmosphere, simulating a volcano eruption, cooling the planet in the process.

The latter is code named SPICE (Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering) and will undergo it’s first test this next month when a hose suspended one kilometer in the air will pump water into the atmosphere. Although geoengineering strategies have been tested before, researchers believe this to be the most cost effective option should the results come back favorable.

[Scientific American]

A sudden bright spot in the night changed colors from blue to orange before streaking across the sky and disappearing has caused hysteria amongst residents in California, Arizona and beyond.

While many scientists are pegging the light show as the result of a basketball sized piece of interplanetary debris burning up through our atmosphere, we are not so quick to agree. While a spaceship seems unlikely, a secret military satellite being blown out of orbit (as posited in the beginning of Andrew Mayne’s debut novel Public Enemy Zero) and crashing down to Earth could work. From the picture posted above, we also can’t rule out that dozens of sitcom stars had simultaneous given a poignant piece of advice and the resulting streak was simply a The More You Know punctuation.

Do you have a conspiracy theory? Post it below.

[CBS 2]

We rate this mystery somewhere between a mystic, regal hybrid of manatee and wild boar at it’s most compelling and the corpse of a bloated, dead dog at it’s most depressing. Either way, something really gross washed up on the shores of Long Island after Hurricane Irene sashayed her way north.

Any thoughts on what it could be?

Thanks to Scott “Effadawg” Johnson for passing this along to us.

[Buzzfeed]

He attended James Randi’s talk at the 2008 edition of Dragon*Con as a regular guy. Yet, he left with a reputation as Zen The Dowser, having just turned in one of the most accurate public dowsing demonstrations under test conditions ever seen.

The video above tells his story, complete with video, of that event and some good information on water dowsing in general. Excellent stuff.

A spectator signs a card. They’re given an undeveloped photograph to hold. The card is lost back in the deck. Before their astonished eyes they watch as the photograph develops into an image of a hand holding their signed card.

Photosynthesis is a powerful way to reveal a word, an image or a signed card.

No camera required. Comes complete with the Photosynthesis gimmick and a 24 minute instructional DVD including several routines.

Photosynthesis is a utility prop you can use to make startling revelations. It looks like an ordinary undeveloped instant photograph but will reveal anything you like including words, cards, images and even signatures.

Photosynthesis gives you the magic of instant photography revelations without the need for film or an instant camera. Completely reusable, it’s heat activated and can be held in a spectator’s hands.

Get yours now for just $24.95.

Who knew these delicate dead faeries were hiding on Etsy all along? This is the handiwork of Weird Things reader Jim Transue who hand makes all of these oddities by hand and sells them for those who really want to get a gift for a man who has everything.

Click AFTER THE JUMP for a few more pictures…

(more…)

A Tale of Scientific Adventure…

It’s 1890 and the citizens of Boston are beginning to go missing in the fog.

The police are confounded. The public is frightened. The city is on the edge of hysteria.

It’s up to the mysterious Smith, inventor and adventurer, to figure out what’s going on with the help of his assistant, April Malone. They’ll have to face off against a secret society, corrupt policemen and a mad psychologist hell-bent on dissecting Smith, in order to solve the mystery of what’s going on and to save the city from an even more sinister threat.

A fast-paced 45,000 word tale of science adventure, this novella is the first story about Smith, a curious man combining elements of Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes and Tony Stark.

You can have it for only 99¢ on the Amazon Kindle store.

[Chronological Man]

Brian Brushwood of the Weird Things podcast wants you to get drunk. For free. And he will show you how to do it step by step in this .99 eBook Cheats, Cons, Swindles and Tricks: 57 Ways To Scam A Free Drink. In fact, it’s the very book that inspired the hit Revision3 series Scam School.

How’d you like to never pay for a drink again? How about having complete strangers pay for your meals? What if you always had a few tricks up your sleeve to break the ice at parties or get the girl’s phone number?

“Cheats, Cons, Swindles and Tricks” is full of 57 of the very best bar scams and tricks, picked up in Brian Brushwood’s 12 years of worldwide travel. As seen on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno (twice!) as well as 2 dozen other TV programs, Brian’s now the host of the popular online series “Scam School,” (downloaded over 1 million times a month, and named by iTunes as a “top video podcast” of 2008 and 2009).

…And THIS is the book that started it all.

With 57 killer tricks (and 8 bonus scams), any one of these tricks could win you the cost of a free drink or more… and yet your investment will be LESS THAN 2 CENTS PER TRICK!

Short enough to digest in an evening, yet powerful enough to score you free drinks for the rest of your life… “Cheats, Cons, Swindles and Tricks” could be the single best investment of 99 cents you’ll ever make.

Get it now!

[Only .99 on Amazon]

Gritty science fiction/western comes to life when T.R. Westwood is called to hunt down a mysterious creature murdering villagers on the outskirts of a world technology forgot. Andrew Mayne’s first novella The Grendel’s Shadow has garnered praise from Amazon readers and consistently ranked among the science fiction charts, find out why when you pick it up via the Kindle store for only .99.

When an unknown animal starts killing off settlers on a backwater planet run on coal and steam power, there’s only person who can help stop the slaughter; T.R. Westwood. A distinguished professor of biology and the galaxy’s greatest hunter, he’s the man to go to when the local wildlife needs to be reminded who is the galaxy’s top predator.

In a galaxy filled with millions of worlds, his specialty is evening the odds for the ones with technological restrictions. Rocks and spears or shotguns and canons, he’ll use whatever is allowed to get the job done.

The Grendel’s Shadow is 35,000 word novella mixing elements of post singularity science fiction, steampunk, horror and western.

If you’ve enjoyed Andrew’s other books including Public Enemy Zero or Chronological Man, you will love The Grendel’s Shadow.

Also, pick up The Grendel’s Shadow audiobook as read by Justin Robert Young for only $2.95.

[The Grendel’s Shadow]

We’ve talked about them on the Weird Things podcast and they ended every episode of Weird Things TV, but if you’re curious about the history of number stations (the creepy repetitive voices, transmitted on low power radio that repeat the same codes over and over and over) then here is a great 50 minute lecture about them.

Thank to reader Ben from Norway for passing this along.

[YouTube]

It creeps, silently.

The orange goo off the coast of the remote Alaskan town of Kivalina is a mystery that could turn ugly. Not only do residents have no idea what the substance is, if it turns out to be harmful to the fishing, hunting or agriculture industries it could be dangerous. Towns like Kivalina are nearly 100% self-sufficient since travel can be so hazardous during winter time.

As of now experts can only rule out that the goo is a petroleum based or man-made chemical. The world is also still out on if it’s a sentient race of alien.

[Fox News]

Being a dwarf in Manila can be a rough life. Many desk jobs have height restrictions, leaving an underclass of little people who find gigs singing, wrestling or stripping for tourist dollars. But one bold pioneer seeks to build a refuge for dwarves like himself, he wants to build a little people only colony…

Being free from this constant abuse, says Doron, is the reason why he and about 30 other dwarves are planning to establish a colony.

An investor has donated 16,000 sq m of land near Manila, though the fields still have to be cleared, the houses built, and the businesses started.

But money is tight, and Doron hopes that local politicians will help with funding and that the colony will one day become a tourist hotspot.

So-called dwarf towns have existed in the past – in Coney Island at the turn of the century and more recently in Kunming, China – but not everyone agrees that they help in the long run.

Doron imagines it to be tourist hot spot playing off the natural fascination many Filipinos have for dwarves. For now though, Doron must continue working his day job as a bartender at a popular dwarf bar The Hobbit House.

[Guardian]

It is the dawning of the computer age and anything is possible. Computations are reduced to milliseconds, data which previously required warehouses and staffs for maintenance can now be stored and sorted with ease and in Santiago, Chile a few very ambitious fellows assumed that these breakthroughs could solve a larger problem.

They were going to take the Chilean economy out of the greedy hands of humans and the capitalist influences that corrupt them.

After Salvador Allende was elected as the first socialist president in the country’s history, he began to nationalize large chucks on the economy including local branches of out-of-state corporations. Many companies that were not nationalized, fled Chile leaving infrastructure (machinery, warehouse space, trucks, employees) behind for the government to take over.

The room you see above was HQ to Cybersyn, a project designed by British research scientist Stafford Beer where telex machines fed raw data into a custom designed program which would in turn create projections and issue guidance on further production and distribution to the newly nationalized factory. It was all controlled in the room pictured above. Boxy, plastic swivel chairs which one could easily picture a subordinate to Admiral Ackbar toiling away in dot the center while glowing panels displaying data ring the walls.

Problem was, by all accounts, it didn’t work. While some declare it to be a forgotten, neglected seed that could have flowered into an egalitarian “socialist internet,” most of the evidence states that not unlike the data display wall mounts (which were non-functioning stage props) the entire project never lived up to its lofty goals.

To put it in perspective, economist Alex Tabarrok points out that the IBM 360 units used in Cybersyn are considerably less powerful than an iPhone.

In this excellent 25-minute video essay about the Cybersyn, authors Jeremiah Axelrod and Greg Borenstein argue that the intentionally futuristic design of the control room was so effective at swaying Allende and his government into believing that the future was now and Cybersyn could be successful that it ultimately doomed the project.

When 1973 came and the military coup by Augusto Pinochet deposed Allende from office, Cybersyn was shuttered and the telex machines mothballed. As for those chairs, the world may never know.

[Wikipedia]

In general, we find “isn’t Japan weird” items well.. a little 90’s. Sure, they are weird. But it’s pretty well worn territory and when Vlad Putin is giving straight faced interviews about Wood Goblins and Yetis we feel the most fertile under recognized ground for weird news has drifted West.

That being said, we could not resist posting this video for anyone who has not already seen it for three reasons:

1- There is a strangely confined feeling to it. It’s all shot on one set or green screen and the bizarre imagery carries the entire clip.

2- It never gets super gross or sexual.

3- The song is really catchy.

So here you go, Weirdlings the tune you won’t be able to get out of your head this weekend.

[YouTube]

Thirsty?

Astronomers have discovered a reservoir containing 140 trillion times the amount of water in all the Earth’s oceans, making it the largest mass of water ever detected in the universe.

“The environment around this quasar is unique in that it’s producing this huge mass of water,” Matt Bradford, a Caltech visiting associate and NASA scientist said in a press release. “It’s another demonstration that water is pervasive throughout the universe, even at the very earliest times.”

Thanks to Weird Things reader Jason for sending this in.

[Huffington Post]