Just because cats are trying to take control of our brains doesn’t mean they need them. In this eerie footage we see a cat achieve 3 different gait patterns with NO BRAIN AT ALL! Scientists turned off the cats brain to study how much of an animal’s movement is controlled by thought and how much is simply a mechanical mechanism.

As if we needed another reason to fear cats…

In the 1940’s the archetype of The Mad Scientist was prevalent in all media from movie serials to comic books. Most people didn’t think such characters actually existed, but they instilled fear in the audience who were afraid of science after the advent of the atomic bomb.

Little did they know that over in communist Russia Mad Scientists were hard at work on a freaky Frankenstein-lite experiment.  By hooking the severed head of a dog up to a blood pump the head re-animates and reacts to stimuli.

Uber-creepy, but it does suggest that the Jar Heads featured in Futurama might just exist some day.

Weird Things Live: Hunting the Night Creeper from Andrew Mayne on Vimeo.

Last Monday night in front of a live internet audience we set out to solve the mystery of the Night Creeper. Ghost? Frogman? Or something else? Although we’re pretty sure we figured it out, we haven’t definitively proved our theory. The mystery continues…

Running time 55 minutes.

Check out our photos of the scene on Flickr.

Hans Rollman, professor of Religious Studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland, writing for the Telegram has shared some details about Newfoundland sea monster lore. The best part? These are amphibious man eaters!

A sea creature of considerable ferocity is also known to the Inuit of Labrador. Nennorluk derives its name from the polar bear (Nennok, nanuk), but the Inuktitut affix “luk” indicates its evil intent. One of the earliest mentions of the Labrador Nennorluk appeared in David Crantz’s “History of Greenland.” Crantz, preserving a 1773 tradition from Nain, says that the legendary amphibious creature “hunted and devoured the seals.” Each of its ears was “large enough for the covering of a capacious tent.” Worse yet, the “beast did not scruple to eat human flesh, when he came on shore.”

link: The Telegram – St. John’s, NL: Columns | Newfoundland and Labrador sea monsters

Mark your calendars. August 31st, 2009 may have been the day the insects got the upper hand in their war against mankind.

Reportedly, a truck driver for the Minot Air Force Base 91st Missile Wing lost control of his vehicle when a “large insect” flew into the cab and (attacked) landed on his back.

When one solitary bug accomplishes what all of our enemies combined have been unable to do, it’s time to start buying Raid by the bulk.

‘Large insect’ sparked missile truck’s crash – Military- msnbc.com

If you think the concept hurts your brain, wait until you try reading the article on Pravda.

We think it has something to do with human hybrids, but talks a lot about a dog giving birth to kittens…

Mankind Close to Creating ‘Mananimal’ – Pravda.Ru

It’s the Bo Duke of pork.

Some call it The Cove Pig, the politically minded refer to it as Freedom Pig for it’s uncanny ability to throw off the shackles of an oppressive government and run wild.

The New York Times chronicles the wild adventures of an officially unnamed feral pig, currently clomping through the backwoods of Panama City, FL. Although it’s been spotted many times and even after taken a taser and four tranquilizer darts during one capture attempt last week, the porky rascal continues to steal into the Sunshine State summer with supernatural stamina.

Local paper The News Herald is even keeping a Google Map for reported sightings.

Cove Pig’s elusive nature has earned it a local celebrity with many Northern Florida residents rooting for it to continue evading police capture, which it has successfully for five months and counting. The snap you see to the right are shirts being sold at a local rest stop.

We’re going to keep you up to date on the hunt for this clearly gifted swine.

Few people have found the elusive Giant Palouse Earthworm (GPE for short), a mythical dirt worm allegedly slipping through the soil of Northwestern Idaho and Washington State. Documented collections of the species have only occurred in 1978, 1988, 1990 and 2005.

Some local farmers even compare reported glimpses of the GPE to Elvis sightings.

But that hasn’t stopped a small, vocal contingent from doing anything they can to find more examples of the chubby, 3-foot-long worm. A new expedition is under way which hopes to entice the GPE out of the ground with chemicals and electric shock. Meanwhile, there is a renewed optimism that the GPE can be listed as an endangered species.

Conservation groups quickly petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the worm as an endangered species, citing as proof the lack of sightings. But the agency said there simply was not enough scientific information to merit a listing.

Conservationists recently filed a second request, saying they had more information. They are also hoping the Obama administration will be more friendly than the Bush administration. The GPE would be the only worm protected as an endangered species.

Doug Zimmer of the Fish and Wildlife Service in Seattle said the agency isn’t ready to comment on the petition.

“It’s always good to see new information and good science on any species,” Zimmer said.

Also, the picture with this story is nowhere near what the GPE really looks like, here is a picture of the only known example of it, it does however look really cool.

In the NBA, they’re called crossovers or ankle breakers. An offensive player moves convincingly enough one way that a defender follows, only to realize he’s been had when the ball handler darts the opposite direction.

Enter the Tentacled Snake: the And 1 Mixtape baller of the Homalaspinae group of colubrids.

As illustrated in this video, TS is known to body fake snakes into fleeing the wrong direction, namely into the predator’s mouth.

Thanks to Weird Things reader Dodd Vickers for the video.

Titled “This is how you suck face.” From Pharyngula.