Gigantic Asphalt Domes Found Off Coast Of California
Posted by Justin on April 26th, 2010See nature? This is what happens when you leave your oil laying around the ocean floor of 35,000 years!
California scientists found two massive asphalt domes on the sea floor, most likely the result of oil deposits made thousands of years ago.
“It was an amazing experience, driving along…and all of a sudden, this mountain is staring you in the face,” said Christopher M. Reddy, director of WHOI’s Coastal Ocean Institute and one of the study’s senior authors, as he described the discovery of the domes using the deep submersible vehicle Alvin. Moreover, the dome was teeming with undersea life. “It was essentially an oasis,” he said, “almost like an artificial reef.”
What really piqued the interest of Reddy — a marine geochemist who studies oil spills — was the chemical composition of the dome: “very unusual asphalt material,” he said. “There aren’t that many opportunities to study oil that’s been sitting around on the bottom of the ocean for 35,000 years.”
This is why we can’t keep anything nice on this sea shelf!
Amazing, Nightmare-Inducing Pictures Of Insects Waking Up In Morning Dew
Posted by Justin on April 26th, 2010
Good morning to you too! Bugs. Dew. Camera. Many more where this came from. Hello Monday.
Thanks to Weird Things reader Marty.
Stephen Hawking Warns Us Of Impending Alien Invasion Threat
Posted by Justin on April 25th, 2010Stephen Hawking is a world renown thinker and a one of a kind personality. Now, he’s also the guy who can flop the “told ya so” card when we are enslaved by a nomadic race of aliens.
“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet,” the award-winning British scientist said in a series for the Discovery Channel, “Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking.”
To drive the point home, Hawking argued that aliens visiting Earth would likely be the same as when explorers first arrived in the New World.
“If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans,” he said.
His solution: stop trying to talk to aliens. Our solution: welcome our new wise and just overlords with open arms.
Underwater Freak Show! Creatures So Bizarre They Hide In The Ocean Depths!
Posted by Justin on April 24th, 2010Just In Case Anyone Gets Any Wild Ideas…
Posted by Justin on April 24th, 2010
[Oddly Specific via pharyngula]
Lost Boys Meet CHUD In The Columbian Sewers
Posted by Editor on April 23rd, 2010Thomas Morton of VBS.com takes the sewers of Bogota, Columbia where he experiences the lives of children living a subterranean life style fleeing the police, getting high on crack and trying to forget that they are waist deep in feces.
[VBS.com]
A Worldwide Hunt For Oddities Summarized In One Video
Posted by Justin on April 23rd, 2010Pretty self-explanatory. Big ups to Atlas Obscura!
Women Ready Attempt To Spur Earthquake With Boobs
Posted by Justin on April 23rd, 2010We reported a few days ago an edict laid down by an Iranian cleric claiming immodestly dressed women were a contributing factor for earthquakes. Specifically intimating that ladies hoeing it up this year has been the root cause of the high profile quakes in Haiti, Chile and Mexico.
But if he thinks it was bad before, just wait until this coming Monday. A Facebook group entitled Boobquake is looking to shake things up, cleavage-style.
The movement calls for all women to really shake what their mother gave them in an effort to tip the cleric’s Islamic espers and spur the tectonic plates somewhere on the earth. If it doesn’t cause an earthquake, then surely the “halter top=earthquake” theory has some ‘splaining to do.
Ladies, get ready to bring the mountains to Mohammed!
[CNN]
2-Headed Lizard!
Posted by Justin on April 23rd, 2010
Apparently, the larger head has attacked the smaller one. Sleep with one eye open, smaller head.
[BBC via BoingBoing]
A Compelling Argument For Blue Laws, Protection Against Satan [Newspaper Archives]
Posted by Justin on April 22nd, 2010HEADLINE: Wilmington blue laws help block Satan’s progress

Wilmington Morning Star: Friday May 18th, 1984
Sasquatch Unjustly Co-Opted By Hand-Wringing Earth Day Propoganda
Posted by Justin on April 22nd, 2010Cryptomundo is rightly ticked off by the name dropping of Sasquatch on the new “Adventure’s of Bobby Bigfoot” website designed to teach kids about sustainability and green living. See, we leave a carbon footprint, Bigfoot has a big footprint, so you shouldn’t be a Bigfoot when it comes to carbon emissions. Blah, blah, blah.
But Sasquatch isn’t some tip-toeing green poster boy. Hell no! He’s mean mother loving devotee to the Earth.
When will Earth Day organizers look to the family bands of Sasquatch out there trying to survive in the environment for the logical icon? Actually, damn, Sasquatch are protectors of the environment, aren’t they?
The Earth needs warriors, as well as educators, but certainly not neurotic kids!!
It is time for the Sasquatch to be promoted as the ultimate Earth Day symbol.
There is a cause we can get behind!
Military Throws Hat Over The Wall For Flying Car
Posted by Justin on April 22nd, 2010Want to know one way to not get blown up by Improvised Explosive Devices? Fly around in a totally sweet flying car!
The Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) has cleared the Transformer (TX) program for takeoff. If it flies, by 2015 U.S. soldiers will be able to ride into battle aboard a four-person flying car that can cruise in the air like an airplane, drive on the ground like an SUV, rove 250 miles on one tank of fuel and not require a runway to get airborne.
DARPA, the Department of Defense office that is tasked with exploring futuristic technologies that may have military applications, held an industry day workshop for companies earlier this year to solicit proposals for developing a prototype vehicle. Proposals are due May 27.
The budget for the project? $54 million with a projection of four years before a prototype is expected.
When Is A Sheep-Pig Not a Sheep-Pig?
Posted by Justin on April 22nd, 2010
When the cuddly little bugger is not actually a hybrid between the two animals but rather an (adorably) hairy version of a regular ol’ hog. That hasn’t stopped some media outlets from referring to the beast as a half-breed between the two different species.
Read up on all things Mangalitsa here on the Wikipedia.
Yup, Humans Totally Banged Neanderthals
Posted by Justin on April 21st, 2010Talk about a morning after… You roll over and realize that exhilarating night of grunting, running and grunting had led to you totally doing it with a Neanderthal. What scandal! What ever will the neighbors think?
Archaic humans such as Neanderthals may be gone but they’re not forgotten — at least not in the human genome. A genetic analysis of nearly 2,000 people from around the world indicates that such extinct species interbred with the ancestors of modern humans twice, leaving their genes within the DNA of people today.
What’s next? Proof that we french kissed those weird Hobbit people?
[Nature]