What you’re looking at isn’t the newest trend in ‘crop-circling’. The thing that created this spectacular-looking sand sculpture isn’t an alien trying to communicate with humankind, either.

The master craftsman behind this amazing looking design is something far less scary and almost kind of adorable.

Yoji Ookota, an office worker who left his cubicle life to pursue his love of underwater photography, recently discovered something that no one had seen until his camera caught sight of it.

A six-foot-wide, elaborate geometric shape 80 feet under the surface of the water on the sea floor. Then he began to spot more of them. Ookota dubbed them the ‘mystery circles’.

As Ookota began to study the circles to find out how they were created, he found the culprit.

An adorable little male puffer fish.

In an amazing display of engineering and the need to be loved, the male puffer fish uses its fins and works day and night to create these things in order to attract females to mate with them. Once the puffer fish creates the ridges, males have even been seen filling their mouths with shells and blowing them onto the ridges they created like they were doing some primitive, animal form of bedazzling.

Females, attracted by the final design, join the male in the center of the design and mate. Later on the female returns to the center of the ‘mystery circle’ and lays her eggs.

These ‘mystery circles’ aren’t just for decoration either. Those shells used to ‘bedazzle’ the ridges appear to serve as nutrients to the young fish when they hatch. According to the most recent research, the design isn’t just for decoration and attracting a mate. The design also features a small bit of engineering. Scientists are discovering that the ridges also serve to protect the eggs from predators and currents that could scatter the eggs across the ocean floor.

This fish has more motivation and interior design abilities than most guys we know.

Weirdly amazing.

[Spoon & Tamago]

Because some people just can’t get the job done while locked in a room by themselves with some fun magazines or just some mental photography, some genius in China has developed something to help those people out…

The lonely Chinese scientist who created this was probably suffering from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and couldn’t even hold a tablet that was playing his favorite movies any longer without discomfort.

(Insert your sad-face pervy scientist emoticon here)

Now this once-sad scienstist has solved ALL of his problems! This thing even has adjustable controls and a built-in dvd player so you can watch your favorite ‘films’.

Like the krill in Finding Nemo, there’s nowhere for your little swimming future-yous to go but in the perpetually slurping maw of a robot that looks like the original Pong arcade game’s second-cousin from the hills.

Clicking play on that video above will either bring laughter, what some like to call ‘cringy-I-smelled-poop’ face or a look of awe and wonder and possibilities to your precious little faces.

The director of the urology department at Zhengzhou Central Hospital said the machine was being used by infertility patients who are finding it difficult to retrieve sperm the old fashioned way.
A website which is selling the machine for $2,800 promoting it stating ‘it can give patients very comfortable feeling.’

Is this the end of prostitution? As newer versions of this machine hit the market, will the older ones find their way into dark alleys and those fun-smelling booths in the back of porn shops or will they start showing up in brothels to replace human workers as the recession keeps taking a chunk from EVERYONE’S budget?

Only time and enough oddly satisfied customers will tell.

[DailyMail UK]

Imagine you are an amazing actor, revered by your peers, honored for your dedication to your craft. Then… your idiot brother changes everything. Andrew tells us of the biggest case of sibling sabotage in American history. Brian maintains that the less we become human, the more we are preserving the human race. A heated argument breaks out over a scenario involving SkyNet, monkey foot soldiers and a chip that brings a massive intelligence upgrade.

It’s a terrifying new episode of Weird Things!

Support the show by purchasing Andrew’s BRAND NEW BOOK Hollywood Pharaohs just click on the image below.

Try out the brand new PODCASTR player, featuring wireless syncing between desktop browsers and iOS devices.

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Picks:

Andrew:

Terra Nova

Brian:

Redshirts

Justin:

Thomas Jefferson: Author of America

Simone Allyne is the Weird Things eBook reviewer focusing on readily available, affordable Science Fiction and Fantasy. If you have a book you’d like reviewed, please email WeirdThingsMail@Gmail

Just like the famous line from Poltergeist II… I’m back!!!!

I want to say thank you for being understanding about my time away.  Sometime life just has a way of getting in the way of the things you really want to do, like read awesome books! But I’m back now and boy do I have the perfect book to get you ready for my favorite time of year, Halloween!

You might have seen previews for a movie about a haunted box, or seen a certain show on a cable network about the same haunted box, but have you read a book about a spirit box?!

The Spirit Box by JH Glaze tells the story of Walt Turner, whose mother has recently passed away.  He has inherited her apartment, his life long home, and the antique shop below.  After losing his job, The Spirit Box calls out to him from the darkness of his mothers shop.

While Walt is trying to decide if the Spirit Box can make all his dreams come true, Detective John Hazard is investigating a series of murders and missing persons in his quiet town. His reality is about to be altered in a life changing way, which will force him to rethink what is real and what isn’t.

The Spirit Box is well written, faced paced book that literally leaves you on the edge of your seat needing to know what happens next! I stayed up way to late several nights in a row because I needed to know how the story was going to end.

JH Glaze does a wonderful job of developing his characters and allowing you to understand their motives, even if you may not agree with them.  I found myself sympathizing with Walt about his situation and really hoping that he’d know the right thing to do. And I might have even found myself not liking Detective John Hazard, for me he came across as a bit of bad cop, with some questionable ethics for sure.

You may not want to look into The Spirit Box because you just might have more than your breath taken away.

[Amazon]

Right up there with Geena Davis’ nightmare of giving birth to Jeff Goldblum’s little baby ‘Brundlefly’ comes a story about a woman giving birth…

To a horse.

During a program about prophecy, a female member of the Worshippers of the World Liberation Ministry began screaming during a prayer session and began bleeding from her girl-parts.

Evangelist Silva Wealth, referred to as the General Overseer of the church told journalists that a revelation came that a woman among them had an issue and that something was blocking her womb.

Wealth claimed that as prayers from church-goers became more instense, the unidentified woman started delivering ‘the object’.

A cleric of the church wouldn’t go near the thing:

“I can’t describe the object. We have seen people that vomited several things during our service but not this type of thing. God has been blessing our ministry with prophesies and miracles, “he said.

That ‘object’ was a still-born horse.

As people begin to flock in droves to the church where this event took place, we can only imagine what kind of disturbing swag the inevitable gift shop is going to be pushing.

[The Nation]

Remember when eating bath-salts, slipping into a rabid zombie-like state, getting naked and chewing the faces off innocent pedestrians was kinda trendy and cool?

Apparently 20 year-old Richard Cimino Jr of Doylestown, Pennsylvania hasn’t been paying attention to the bath-salt fount of information that this blog is about such things.

State police responded to a call the other night from two women who reported an assault…an assault by?

We can hear all of you in a weird unison of unspoken nodding…’bath-salt zombie’.

According to early reports, Cimino pulled his car up behind a home early in the morning, stripped to his underwear and tried to break into the home. The resident at that home startled Cimino who fled to another home not far away and proceeded to break in to the second home. No one was home.

Cimino proceeded up to the second floor of the home and, like the erratic behavior exhibited by most of the ‘Bath-Salt Zombies’ we’ve seen so far, parkoured himself from the second-story window severely injuring his arms and legs when he slammed into the ground.

True to ‘Bath-Salt Zombie’ lore (which stretches back in time to the end of January of this year) Cimino got up and walked away while bleeding profusely.

Cimino then approached two women, who once again helped this whole incident slide into the typical ‘Bath-Salt Zombie’ profile when he jumped one of them and, “screaming like a wild animal”, began gnawing on the skull of one of the poor women.

Both women managed to escape Cimino, who police later found covered in blood acting delusional and confrontational.

After lunging at a state trooper and punching a medical technician, Cimino was tasered and taken to Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton.

Cimino is charged with two counts each of aggravated assault, criminal mischief, indecent exposure, three counts of burglary and several other charges.

At this time tests regarding what Cimino may have been hopped up on are still pending.

Anyone want to take a stab at what he may have been on? Anyone?

[Times-Tribune]

Instead of indulging Justin in his incessant need to make insipid comments, Brian and Andrew are free to take things in bold new directions as they take the reigns on the WTP as a POWER DUO! A podcast full of monkey sex, science, discussion of peak oil and yet more monkey sex.

Bri Bri and AM answer questions submitted by the audience. Enjoy!

Support the show by purchasing Andrew’s BRAND NEW BOOK Hollywood Pharaohs just click on the image below.

Try out the brand new PODCASTR player, featuring wireless syncing between desktop browsers and iOS devices.

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Download url: http://www.itricks.com/upload/WeirdThings091412.mp3

[podcast]http://www.itricks.com/upload/WeirdThings091412.mp3[/podcast]

Listener Spots:

– Vote Richard

– Big Bad Con

Picks:

Brian: One Second After

Justin: DNP

Andrew: The War Game

The boys are united in front of a live audience at Dragon*Con in Atlanta, GA! This total surprise panel is enhanced by the ever elusive Amtrekker himself Brett Rounsaville, they ruminate on all things weird in a darkened room with several dozen of their closest friends.

A mysterious beast seeks to tear Brian’s head off unless he thinks of something quickly. We are introduced to the darling English company of Mildred and friends when an inspector has to determine why she has a mysterious shaft in the middle of her house. Meanwhile, Andrew and Justin is horrified to learn how Brett and Brian would handle Bigfoot roadkill.

Support the show by purchasing Andrew’s BRAND NEW BOOK Hollywood Pharaohs just click on the image below.

Try out the brand new PODCASTR player, featuring wireless syncing between desktop browsers and iOS devices.

Subscribe to the Weird Things podcast on iTunes
Podcast RSS feed
Episode archive
Download url: http://www.itricks.com/upload/WeirdThings091312.mp3

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Picks:

Andrew:

Titanic

Brian:

H+

Justin:

Turquoise Jeep

Researchers in Sweden have successfully created the illusion of people feeling sensations in three arms at the same time.

In five separate laboratory experiments, 154 volunteers were seated with their hands on a table and a rubber arm was placed next to their right arm. A sheet covered their shoulders and elbows, creating the illusion that the person had three arms. ( Source: Science Daily)

Researchers stroked the both the real and fake arms with a brush simultaneously until 7 out of 10 subjects reported feeling sensation in both limbs. They then threatened the fake arm with a knife and measured recognizable stress in heart rate that is normally associated with the threat of bodily harm.

The study could be helpful in helping amputees better accept prosthetics.

[WFTV]

Yosemite. The word conjures up postcards and beautiful nature photography.

Not anymore.

It’s beginning to conjure up bad horror movie dealing with parasites and viruses.

That’s right, kids…

Yosemite’s hiding something creepy.

Health officials have made an announcement to 22,000 nature lovers that they may have been exposed to something called the Hantavirus.

A park-goer infected with the Hantavirus in July died just last week.

While investigators believed that only a small area in the Curry Village section of Yosemite had been affected, an eighth person infected with the virus spurred health officials into warning visitors of the problem.

Since 1993 only 602 cases of the deadly Hantavirus have been reported. But out of those 602 cases? 216 of those infected have died.

The CDC lists the symptoms of the virus which appears similar to the flu…

Fatigue, fever and muscle aches, especially in the large muscle groups — thighs, hips, back and sometimes shoulders … There may also be headaches, dizziness, chills and abdominal problems, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain.

Within a week your lungs begin to fill with liquid and it’s practically guaranteed that it’s game over, man.

The transmission of the disease is rare and is typically transmitted by being in contact with infected mice feces or urine.

We’re suggesting that when you’re in the area, you hit a battered gas station, snag a postcard from one of those squeaky, spinning racks and just keep driving past all the fun that those nature-loving hikers are probably experiencing (yes…that’s sarcasm).

[NYTIMES]

We’re pretty sure that some of you have been in a house or a building with sagging floorboards before and just never really gave much thought to what was causing the sagging. Probably just figured,”Meh…old house. Sags.” End of story.

Mr. Steer of Plymouth, England had been wondering the same thing about one such sag in his living room for quite a while. Once he retired, he decided to get down to business and fix the problem.

He decided to repair the joists in the floor that might’ve been causing the sag when he noticed something else.

“I was replacing the joists in the floor when I noticed a slight depression – it appeared to be filled in with the foundations of the house,” he said.
“I dug down about one foot but my wife just wanted to me to cover it back up because we had three children running around at the time.
“I always wanted to dig it out to see if I could find a pot of gold at the bottom, so when I retired at the end of last year that’s what I started to do.”

What Steer found was a well dating back to the 16th century. With the help of a friend, Steer began excavating the well. During the excavation, Steer and his friend uncovered what appears to be a peasant’s sword.

After installing lights in the well and making it the new focal point of his living room, Steer’s research has taught him that the well was built in the 16th century by Sir Francis Drake to carry water from Dartmoor to Plymouth. The well had been covered over sometime around 1895.

Just hope they don’t find that video tape and that creepy little Samara Morgan doesn’t come crawling out in the middle of the night dripping well-water all over the floor.

[ Telegraph.Co.UK]

The bikini debuted in 1946. It’s gone through a lot of variations. There’s been a monokini, microkini, tankini, trikini, pubikini (yes…it’s a real thing) and the mankini. But only occasionally has the phrase ‘nightmare fuel’ ever been associated with the bikini…until now.

Because Chinese culture prefers white, porcelein-like skin to the tan-loving people of the west, women on beaches in China are now sporting what’s been dubbed the ‘facekini’.

It’s basically a fancy name for ski mask worn by anyone up to no good who’d rather have their face NOT show up on YouTube or the local news while getting their hooligan on or doing some burglaring.

Seeing people sporting these on the beach is a lot like David Lynch is shooting an episode of American Horror Story…with the exception that this is real.

Nothing quite like checking out a woman from behind on the beach only to have her turn around sporting one of these things on her face.

Cue the ‘stabby shower music’ from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho!

[Reuters]

A man attempts to smuggle a mysterious creature on an airplane, before the the cops uncover his terrifying secret. A Playboy playmate is busted for moving some serious weight south of the border. A Kickstarter involving a favorite Weird Things topic is debated by Brian and Andrew. A murderous beast stalks in a public Los Angeles park. We offend all of the British Empire.

Also, a brand new insurance policy against danger that’s sssssssssssssssssure to please.

Support the show by purchasing Andrew’s BRAND NEW BOOK Hollywood Pharaohs just click on the image below.

Try out the brand new PODCASTR player, featuring wireless syncing between desktop browsers and iOS devices.

Subscribe to the Weird Things podcast on iTunes
Podcast RSS feed
Episode archive
Download url: http://www.itricks.com/upload/WeirdThings083012.mp3

[podcast]http://www.itricks.com/upload/WeirdThings083012.mp3[/podcast]

Listener Spots:

All spots purchased by Gord McLeod and his site FictionImprobable.com

Love Andrew Mayne’s books? Great! Keep reading them and supporting indie authors! Then, when you’re done that, check out Fiction Improbable at www.fictionimprobable.com

Picks:

Andrew:

Breaking Bad

Brian:

Kill Decision

Justin:

Doctor Who

“How’d your uncle die?”

“He was dressed like a sad, ghetto version of bigfoot, walked into traffic and got nailed by two oncoming cars.”

True story.

44-year-old Randy Lee Tenley of Montana was struck dead when he was hit by two oncoming vehicles as he attempted to cross several lanes of traffic dressed like more like a topiary at a bankrupt garden attraction than Bigfoot in hopes he’d stir up some sightings of the infamously mysterious legend.

Police are continuing their investigation to see if alcohol played a role in the incident.

We’re going to go with, “Yes. There was a LOT of alcohol that a role in the incident.”

What kind of epitaph would you write for that?
[ABCNews.com]

Who knew? Corn’s a valuable commodity among beef producers. Problem is that because of drought there’s just not enough of it to feed all those cows which has caused the price to skyrocket. Beef producers are now looking to alternatives to corn until the prices drop back down to something resembling reasonable. The alternative to corn?

Candy.

Massive amounts of discarded candy from manufacturers.

If you order a burger at your local fast food joint and it tastes like someone spilled a pixie stick on it? You’ll know why.
[WPSD LOCAL6]