[Deadspin]
A tomb containing several Stone Age generations of human remains dating back up to 5,000 years, along with a few otter skeletons of the same era, have been located on an island in Northern Scotland. The Tomb of the Otters, signifies the most important neolithic find this region has seen in over 30 years.
So, why are there otter bones amongst the final resting place of so many humans? Apparently the tomb wasn’t used very often and someone forgot to close the door when they left.
“It suggests the tomb was not entirely sealed and that otters were trampling in and out a lot” throughout the tomb’s use, (county archaeologist for Orkney, Julie) Gibson said.
“For that to occur, you must think there was a gap of a year or two” between grave visits or burials.
The site was discovered when a resident attempted to level an area of his property to give himself a better ocean view. You know, to see the otters.
[Nat Geo]
Bolungarvik, Iceland is under attack by unexplained dirt and rocks that is raining from the sky. While government officials are looking for a rational explanation, the locals are convinced that a recent project that used dynamite on the land has thrown nature, and the elves out of balance. The townspeople are trying to appease the elves with songs and prayers.
The town of Bolungarvik has been experiencing a rash of unexplained rocks and dirt that rain from the sky, bombarding the town and scaring its residents. Although the local government believes a rational explanation can be attributed to the falling debris, locals believe that supernatural forces are behind the attacks. Elves and “hidden folks” are to blame.
Recent construction of a new avalanche defence barrier required the dynamiting of local land, something said to be a big no-no in the land of elves. In the folklore, any disruption to the harmony of nature must be balanced out and carried out respectfully. I know that in Iceland, some people believe in the powers of ley lines and they are said to be used by elves, gnomes and fairies. Obstruction to these lines or paths could bring havoc to a person’s life.
A California hunter is fearing for his livelihood after killing a mother Sasquatch and one of her children on a desolate road. According to web rumors culled by BigfootSightings.com, the man is worried that the killing violates his California hunting license which strictly regulates what can and cannot be killed. Bigfoot is nowhere to be found on the list of animals appropriate to kill. Furthermore, new DNA evidence about the elusive Bigfoot could prove the animals to be partially human which could open him up to murder charges.
The story is that a hunter in Plumas County, CA was threatened by a female Bigfoot, old enough to have gray hair. She was, according to him, blocking the road and making gestures that made him feel threatened, so he got out of his vehicle and shot her.
Then he says there were two young Sasquatches in the forest nearby, obviously upset by the female’s death. The hunter is reported to have shot and killed one of them.
The story continues that there were two other hunters with him. One became hysterical and they took away the rifle and wouldn’t let him shoot the third Bigfoot.
Trial of the century?
Oleg Kirzhakov began November 2nd, 1989 as a Soviet-era, long-haul trucker in Mother Russia. He ended it as best friends to a race of aliens that shared his love for Bigfoot and promised to never be farther than 15 seconds away from him should he ever get into trouble.
En route from the northern territory of Arkhangelsk to capital city Moscow, he and his partner Nikolai stumbled upon what looked to be roadside construction equipment. What they found was something far more important. It was a UFO, complete with a sheen metal exterior, a electronic field that cut off electricity to Oleg’s rig and a telekinetic bond that projected a screen into Oleg’s field of vision so they could communicate.
After a bizarre request for matches, which Oleg fetched only to have a black “mass” come off the ship to retrieve, the curious truck driver decided it was time to get some answers. He boarded the ship.
The recess was a three- dimensional information screen, on which I was shown the interior of another sister ship, with the same moving ‘masses’ (during the demonstration, the two ‘masses’ in our ship were motionless).
Then, they showed a ship in space, among the stars, and at the end of the demonstration, they showed the presenter of a Soviet television program called Vremya.
Oleg couldn’t help but ask a few more questions:
“I asked question after question. The answers I received were heard in my head before I saw them on the screen. I asked, ‘What kind of ship am I on now? What kind of propulsion system do you use to make it fly?’
In response I was told that this spacecraft was a scout ship and used electromagnetic fields to fly. I was also told that they were studying our planet, which they need as a springboard to the future.
In response to my question ‘Do you have any connection with Bigfoot?’, they said, ‘Yes’ and added that they watch Bigfoot continuously.
You love Bigfoot? I love Bigfoot! We totally need to hang out more! When… will… I see you guys again…?
“Then I asked, ‘Is it possible to see you once again?’ They said, ‘If you are in danger we will find you within 15 seconds’.
Oleg de-boarded and got back in his truck while the ship enveloped itself into a ball of light and silently shot to the stars.
Best friends in the galaxy.
Lots of odd creatures come from the sea, and add to the list a one-eyed bull shark fetus that was removed from the body of its captured mother recently off La Paz, Mexico, in the Sea of Cortez.
A brief story about the shark is on the Pisces Sportfishing blog. Pete Thomas Outdoors shared the top image with two shark experts in California and both were skeptical at first, suggesting it was some kind of hoax.
One of them jokingly identified the species as a “Cycloptomus” because of a single eye — if it is, in fact, an actual eye — located just above the mouth.
But Tracy Ehrenberg, general manager at Pisces Sportfishing, has been in touch with renowned shark expert Felipe Galvan, who has seen the shark and has even produced a paper on the discovery.
A woman in Kazan, Russia was rushed to the hospital by her husband after reportedly suffering chest pains and collapsing. Doctors soon told her devastated husband the sad news, his wife was dead.
Family was called and preparations were made for the funeral.
But there was one very special guest in attendance: Fagilyu Mukhametzyanov, the woman who had earlier received the death diagnosis and was currently surrounded by mourning family and friends praying for her soul to go to heaven.
That sight, reportedly, was enough to kill her.
Devastated husband Fagili Mukhametzyanov, 51, had been told his wife had died of a heart attack after she’d collapsed at home suffering from chest pains.
Mr Mukhametzyanov said: ‘Her eyes fluttered and we immediately rushed her back to the hospital but she only lived for another 12 minutes in intensive care before she died again, this time for good.
‘I am very angry and want answers. She wasn’t dead when they said she was and they could have saved her.’
Talk about waking up dead.
Fisherman found a 23-foot long, dead squid floating about 12 miles off the Florida coast near Port Salerno. The fisherman hauled it ashore and donated the body to the Florida Museum of Natural History.
“We pulled up… thought it was something to fish on, a pallet or something like that. We looked at it, all three of us were like ‘holy mackerel,’ ” recalled Benz.
It turned out to be a 23-foot long giant squid. It’s a rare find in our waters. The main part of the body was about 11-feet long, but with its two long tentacles, it barely fit in the 23-foot boat Benz was riding in. But he knew they had to bring it ashore.
“Nobody believes a fisherman,” said Benz. “It didn’t seem it had been dead long, the tentacles were still moving and it was sticking to you when we got it in.
[WPTV]
“Residents in Huanshan City in East China encountered one of the best and most clearest mirage of their city a few weeks ago after a rainfall. Apparently some believed to be a “ghost city” that materialized over the Xin’an River. Yet others believed that what they were looking at was a real city from another dimension.”
We can’t understand a word of this report but it seems as if a nosy dog owner recording his mutt running around happened upon some kind of levitation training session. A girl wearing a red parka levitates what looks to be 12 feet off the ground and hovers. She returns to the ground and then runs away with an older supervisor.
Are there a team of Russian mutants training in the woods? You be the judge.
Thank to Weird Things reader Kevin for sending this in.
[YouTube]
Fans of J Pop girl group AKB48 were delighted to see the addition of a new member in a candy commercial. Her name is Aimi Eguchi and she smiled and waves alongside her new band mates as they happily sung the virtues of Ezaki Glico. Yum!
But there is something about Aimi…
Fans immediately took to message boards and pounded out furious speculation on who the new girl was, why they hadn’t heard of her before the commercial and if she was related to one of the other AKB48 songbirds, because she looks a lot like… well… all of them.
The secret: Aimi Eguchi is a digital creation. Her face and body are a composite of the other girls. Ya’ll wanna see how it’s made? Let’s take a look at this behind the seasons demonstration featuring the AKB48 gals doing what they do best, singing their little faces off (so they can make another face):
Want even more? Listen to this comment from Aimi. Is there any doubt in your mind now that a totally digital pop star is a reality, if not already in our midst? Would anyone be surprised if Bruno Mars was really an elaborate project to market a singing version of a young Muhammed Ali?
Justin foolishly rushes into surgery that could make his creepy stare deadly. Brian gets sold a house on the cheap for his family to move into but when winter comes, a vile secret becomes a disgusting reality. Andrew plots the confusing world of global conspiracies and possibly uncovers one that could fundamentally reshape our idea of space travel.
PLUS! The first two chapters of Andrew Mayne’s new book The Chronological Man: The Monster In The Mist, as read by Justin is FREE at the end of the podcast!
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Well this is certainly a step in the right direction for downloading instructions on how to fly a helicopter right into your brain. Researchers have stuffed chips into rat brains that enabled them to instantly know things. They can also flip the switch off and the rats forget. Fascinating.
After studying the chemical interactions that allow short-term learning and memorization in rats, a group of scientists lead by Dr. Theodore Berger—from the University of South California’s Viterbi School of Engineering—have built a prosthetic chip that uses electrodes to enhance and expand their memory abilities. The chip is capable of storing neural signals, basically functioning as an electronic memory, allowing rats to learn more and keep it in the devices.
Dr. Berger’s description is almost frightening:
“Flip the switch on, and the rats remember. Flip it off, and the rats forget […] These integrated experimental modeling studies show for the first time that with sufficient information about the neural coding of memories, a neural prosthesis capable of real-time identification and manipulation of the encoding process can restore and even enhance cognitive mnemonic processes.
[Gizmodo]
Recently, a dog in Jerusalem got uppity and entered the courts and would not leave. This prompted some judges to remember that they had cursed a lawyer 20 years early to have his spirit enter a dog, because in traditional Judaism dogs are impure creatures. Naturally, they issued a verdict that the lawyer dog should be stoned to death. Luckily for the dog, it escaped before its sentence could be carried out.
“A Jewish rabbinical court condemned to death by stoning a stray dog it feared was the reincarnation of a lawyer who insulted its judges, reports say.
The dog entered the Jerusalem financial court several weeks ago and would not leave, reports Israeli website Ynet.
It reminded a judge of a curse passed on a now deceased secular lawyer about 20 years ago, when judges bid his spirit to enter the body of a dog.
The animal is said to have escaped before the sentence was carried out.”
[BBC]
A strange little video. Thoughts?
“We caught whatever this is on our digital still camera on video mode. We were zoomed in as far as the camera would go. It took off when we tried to get closer. We were startled by the result of the zoomed image, PA.”
