GUEST: Tom Merritt

Brian and special guest Tom find themselves covered in meat after it rains from sky. Justin wonders aloud if the characters in Avengers are the mythic Gods of our modern era… except for Thor, who is kind of a God in both. Also, a marine biologist attaches a laser beam to the fin of one of the ocean’s most dangerous species. Is it awesome or the worst idea ever?

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Picks:

Tom-

MC Lars

Brian:

Hounded: Iron Druid Chronicles, Book One

Justin:

Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men

Can you legally shoot Bigfoot right in his Bigfoot-y face while in the Lone Start State? One Oregon Sasquatch seeker thought to ask an expert at the Texas Parks and Wildlife department for a clarification on the rules.

He received a very dry and clear cut email basically stating that if the hunter could prove that Bigfoot was indigenous to Texas, it’s fair game. But now, that is under dispute…

But Sinclair told FoxNews.com his response has been taken wildly out of context.

“This guy never really alluded to Bigfoot, though it seems maybe he said something about Sasquatch,” Sinclair told FoxNews.com. “He took my statement and said that it was safe to hunt an ‘indigenous cryptid,’ whatever that is. He misquoted me.”

Meanwhile, this has sparked a mini-firestorm in the Bigfoot community that wonders if the announcement of Open Season on the big guy will mean the as-yet-unfound cryptid could go extinct. That is, if they could prove he’s real first. Which would probably require the scientific study of a corpse. Which would call for killing.

My head hurts.

[Fox News] via Ken Cowan

His name is Dr. Rev. His work is painting using only his own blood.

Is this:

1) A bold artistic statement
2) An interesting concept

3) The creepiest thing on the planet

Check out his gallery below.

[Blood Painting] via Tony Ley

A new round of Hitler memorabilia is about to hit the auction block and among the items for sale is Adolf’s medical journals. One of them was compiled from interviews with six of Hitler’s chief doctors and the other comes from only one of those doctor’s notes.

Here are the highlights as learned by the Washington Examiner:

Cocaine: The longer report from Giesing noted Hitler’s cocaine use to clear his sinuses and that the doctor had to cut the dosage because the father of the “Final Solution” craved it because it made him happy.

Alternative remedies to sexual dysfunction: …it quotes Hitler doctor Theodore Morrell confirming that Hitler and Braun had sex though they slept in separate beds and that he was injected with semen from young bulls to spark his libido.

Farts: Panagopulos said the report also notes that Hitler “suffered from uncontrollable flatulence” due to his veggie diet, something the German leader took pills for.

All these secrets and more can be yours at auction on May 7th at Alexander Historical Auctions. You might want to find a young bull before you bid… you know… to get your courage up.

[Washington Examiner]

Is the picture above an unidentified space ship? Or simply a collection of cosmic rays that have formed an unusual grouping?

Our hope: both.

You know what happens then…

A pair of fraud Romanian fortune tellers have been busted for the oldest tricks in the rankable page index: Googling information on their clients.

The two made a living allegedly selling “the future” to customers by pearing into a crystal ball. Their claims were only bolstered by the fact that they seemed to know so many other facts about the lives of those that called upon them. Police exposed their antics after an accomplice attempted to bribe an officer to make the whole affair go away.

Although the pair are shut down now, it did not come soon enough for one poor woman who was parted with a large sum of cash in one of the most awesome scams ever.

One woman told how she had believed the two Roma women were genuine mystics, and had been persuaded to take tens of thousands of pounds and go to a nearby lake for a midnight ritual. She had been told that she had to release herself from the burden of her money and throw it all in the lake – but when she hesitated a demon like figure had emerged from the water and in a panic – she had thrown the money into the water and run away.

But police discovered that the water devil was in fact a pal of the pair who had put on diving gear and a mask to terrify the unsuspecting victim.

The Old Water Demon Running Out Of The Lake graft. What a rube.

[Austrian Times]

Seriously, nature wants you and your whole family dead. Remember that the next time you’re thinking about saving the planet. It really hates you.

[CNN]

It was a lonely day in Northeast Kentucky, when all of a sudden out of the blue blazes… meat rained from the sky.

In 1876 a shower of three-inch chunks of meat rained down from a clear sky over Olympian Springs, Kentucky. The Louisville Commercial reported that “two gentlemen, who tasted the meat, express the opinion that it was either mutton or venison.” A scientist at the Royal Microscopical Society of Great Britain theorized that buzzards had feasted on dead horses, flown over the town, and vomited.

This comes from a list of strange things that have randomly dropped from the heavens. Also on the list, a 2009 rain of frogs in Japan and a squid that clunked a dude on the head so hard in 1997 that he spend two days in a coma.

[PopSci]

As you might have heard Adam Yauch died today, a victim of cancer. He was 47 and is survived by his wife and child.

Arguably the best of the Beastie Boys deep videography, Intergalactic is easily the most Weird Things of the bunch. Godzilla-inspired war between robot and sea creature gives way to Japanese subway rapping.

RIP MCA.

A man named Luke Tipple, marine biologist most recognizably known for his work on the Discovery Channel, attached a laser beam to a shark. It was temporary. The laser was the lowest powered model produced by Wicked Lasers, which promoted the feat. The lemon shark was unharmed.

There was even a bit of scientific value, Tipple experimented with a new kind of clap that could be used in future tracking research.

Awesome right? Not so much, for some critics who found the stunt disrespectful to the animal.

“Is there a point of it? It has to have an objective,” Neil Hammerschlag, an assistant professor with the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, told Wired.

“I would say the attachment process sounds non-invasive,” Hammerschlag said. “I don’t think it’s going to cause any damage to the shark. It’s temporary. In terms of the goal, without knowing the specific scientific or educational application, it’s hard to say. But if this is just to respond to a scene in the Austin Powers movie, I don’t see value. You’re just causing unnecessary stress on the animal. It’s not respectful.”

This is why we can’t have anything nice. Like sharks. With frickin laser beams. On their head.

[Wired]

Are you ready to terrorize a small medieval village? How about set fire to your enemies? Threaten the slave city of Astapor?

Is this the RC toy for you!

It flies. It breathes fire. It looks like a dragon.

Named “Mythical Beast” this bad motherhuncher is designed by Rick Hamel. Get some more of the technical deets at the Jalopnik link below. In the meantime, check out the video of Beast in action.

[Jalopnik] via Matt Marsh

The whiz kids at io9 have put together a compilation of research that explains why we see imaginary, monstrous faces when we look in the mirror for an elongated period of time. This is the very basis for sleepover games like Bloody Mary, designed to spook kids into wetting themselves while surrounded by their jerkwad friends.

Ah, youth.

Here’s the jist:

The brain, when faced with a lot of stimulation, only some of which is considered relevant, will tune out the non-relevant parts, filling in what it can from the general area. It’s a little like how the blind spot works, except this is a dynamic process. The brain will zoom in on a desired area, and the rest of the space will fade away. This is called the Troxler Effect, or Troxler Fading.

The post goes on to discuss a study where respondents looked in a mirror for 10 minutes and reported all manner of horrors staring back at them by the end of it. 10% explained seeing dead parents with key elements of their face rearranged.

[io9]

You are involved in horrible car accident. Paramedics buzz around to make sure you make it to the hospital alive. You’re losing blood. If you don’t get more of the right time in you soon, things could take a turn for the worse.

But the on-the-scene help is panicked. Many are new. They have to determine your blood type in the field, a life or death decision.

Which is where Harry Potter comes in.

A brand new invention, inspired by the young wizard’s tales. It’s a piece of paper that which reveals what blood type it has come in contact with. Instant, easy to decipher and creepy as all get out.

The device consists of a sensor made from a tiny piece of paper, coated with a hydrophobic, water-repellent, layer, but four “windows” are left without it, making them prone to absorb liquid.

Each area is shaped differently; for instance, one has the shape of the letter A, another – the shape of the letter B.

These areas are filled with antibodies that interact with red blood cells, making them clump together, or agglutinate, depending on the blood type.

Not to be a picky muggle, I think they mean the inspiration for this would be Tom Riddle’s diary from Chamber of Secret, which wrote back to someone writing in it or possibly the Marauder’s Map which laid invisible until the right unlocking spell was cast.

[BBC]

He lived. He ate deer meat. He took an arrow to the shoulder and died.

That was roughly 5,300 years ago for the corpse they call Ötzi. Hikers found his body in the Alps in 1991. But only now did scientists realize he brought us an amazing gift: the world’s oldest recovered completed blood cells.

To confirm the finding, the researchers used a technique called Ramen spectroscopy, which uses light-scattering patterns to determine which molecules are present in a sample. The suspected blood cells had all the markers of true red blood cells, including hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen in the blood.

While other researchers have attempted to identify blood on older stone tools, this is the oldest definite confirmation of blood, Zink said. The find may help advance forensic science, because current crime-scene technology has trouble differentiating between old and new blood, he said.

Ötzi. If only all 45-year-old murder victims could be so ambitious.

[MSNBC]

Blue Origin, the space exploration company founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos is ready for it’s close up. Although notoriously secretive in comparison to companies like SpaceX, May is a huge month for Blue and now they’re ready to talk about it.

Not only have wind-tunnel tests come back positive for their Space Vehicle unit, but they are going to begin testing on the rocketry phase of their plan.

Alexander said the resulting spacecraft design “will be officially blessed” at a system requirements review in May. Also during May, Blue Origin expects to begin testing of the thrust chamber assembly for its BE-3 rocket engine at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, Alexander said.

The company, based in Kent, Wash., is receiving $22 million from NASA during the current phase of the space agency’s program to help commercial ventures develop space taxis for the post-shuttle era. The SV isn’t nearly as big as the space shuttle, of course, but it should be capable of transporting up to seven passengers to and from the International Space Station.

The MSNBC post brings up a very interesting issues. Although NASA is currently offering money to four companies Boeing Co., Sierra Nevada Corp., SpaceX and Blue Origin, many believe that list will shrink with the next round of funding. Many in congress would like to see the space agency pick one horse this early in the game.

No matter who NASA sprinkles with coin, the bang for the buck on such an investment could really pay dividends in cheaper, reliable options for ambitious research. Very interesting.

[MSNBC]

His name is Red Velvet. He is sick of the antics of Phoenix Jones, Seattle’s real life super hero who recently was forced to unmask under threat after a legal snafu.

It’s not quite clear what Velvet wants, but the video is awesome.

[YouTube] via WT reader Brock