For all of our WeirdThings fathers. A male seahorse…doing something you don’t have to…giving birth.

You’re welcome.

Happy Father’s Day
[YouTube]

Carnivorous plants are as sneaky as they are creepy. What they lack in speed, they make up for in shady tactics to attract and snag prey.

The standard ‘Pitcher Plant’, shaped like something you’d pour Evil Nectar-flavored Kool-Aid from, draws its intended prey into the bell portion of it’s diabolical design. Once the prey slips on the wax-like coating covering the interior of the plant, it falls into the bottom of the pitcher and the plant’s digestive enzymes begin the horrific process of breaking down its latest victim. Some of the bigger species of Nepenthes Gracilis (the Pitcher Plant’s fancy latin moniker) have even been seen luring, trapping and digesting small birds.

Why are we rehashing something a lot of our readers might know about?

Evolution.

Something unique is happening to help keep trap more prey into the Pitcher Plant. The thing is developing a new trick.

On top of the large ‘bell’ portion of the plant is a lid. Up until this new discovery, Pitcher Plants have only used the lid for keeping out rain. Now the underside of the lid has developed its own advanced waxy coating that potential food feels securely attached to. The trick is that the feeling of security that an insect feels clinging to the underside of the lid is a sham! A raindrop hitting the top side of the lid will cause most insects clinging underneath to be knocked down into the Pitcher Plant’s sweet death-nectar.

Let’s just hope that these things don’t decide that developing legs might be something fun to do.

[Discovery News]

Bigfoot news is ripe now that Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot” is reinvigorating the hunt for the apparent ninja-trained mysterious icon of cryptozoology.

On the other side of the world from Idaho’s recent sighting, comes reports of Australia’s version of the creature..the Yowie.

Fresh tracks and sightings of the creatures appearing near the city of Lismore have caused Rex “The Yowie Man” Gilroy (best name ever for a crypto-hunter/adventurer) and his wife Heather, who founded the Australian Yowie Research Centre back in 1976, to leap into action in hopes of capturing evidence that the creature exists.

Lately hikers in the Lismore area have claimed to see what appears to be a male and a female creature along the trails. Reaching out to locals and heading out this time with a team of cryptozoologists, Gilroy is set on collecting new evidence to show people that this strange and elusive creature is absolutely real.

We can’t wait to hear about the further adventures of Rex Gilroy: Yowie Hunter.

[Northern Star Australia]

UPDATE: Yeah, this one is malarkey. The boy was identified as a Dutch runaway. None of his story was true.

In a last attempt at trying to identify a mysterious young man that wandered from the woods in Berlin, police have decided to release several photos of the youth nick-named ‘Forest Boy’.

It’s been almost a year now since German authorities picked up the mysterious guy everyone simply calls ‘Forest Boy’ or ‘Ray’ as he’s called by officers and still no one has come forward to claim him as family or friend.

For those who aren’t quite up to speed on ‘Forest Boy’? He strolled into Berlin from the woods surrounding the capital city about a year ago claiming that he’d been living out there for about five years. Forest Boy speaks very good English, doesn’t have any kind of record on file, was born in 1994 and claims that his parents are dead; his mother in a car crash and his father died after he fell over last August.

Forest Boy continues to baffle police as to where he came from or who he is. Many authorities, including police cheif, smell a hoax and the search continues for his identity.

Eventually ‘Ray’ will have to be let go from the housing project that he’s currently living in.

“At some time he will have to be given a family name, a nationality and an official date of birth — that is the law in this country,” said Thomas Neuendorf of the Berlin Police.

If you could ask ONE question to one of the world’s most creative magicians, what would it be?

If you’ve never been to a magic lecture, there’s never been a better time. Saturday June 16th at 7:00pm, we’re live-streaming Andrew Mayne in a spectacular 2-hour interactive online lecture. Watch, ask questions and learn things you won’t find in any book or DVD.

ATTENDING COULDN’T BE EASIER

Purchase the Andrew Mayne LIVE “product”. This is your ticket.
On Saturday, June 16th, anytime before 7:00pm Eastern, click the “MyPenguinMagic” area at the top of the Penguin site. You’ll see the livestream appear 1 hour before showtime. At 7pm sharp, Andrew will hit the stage and begin his JAM-PACKED professional lecture.

Sit back and watch over 2 hours of DVD-quality live streaming magic from the comfort of your own home.

Ask Andrew Mayne questions and discuss the tricks DURING the lecture.

DON’T WORRY IF YOU MIGHT MISS IT.

Reserve your seat anyway. Within 24 hours of ending, you’ll be able to download and/or watch the full lecture on-demand, and go over all the great routines and subtleties as many times as you want. It’ll be waiting for you in your “MyPenguinMagic” area.

Magicians flock to see “workers” give talks. Why? Because these guys see and learn things that you won’t find in any book or DVD. Yes, you’ll be learning some incredibly powerful A-material, but the INVALUABLE stuff will be the insight you learn along the way.

This lecture is for everyone, from the beginner to the professional and for magicians and mentalists alike. Don’t miss it!

BUY YOUR TICKET NOW!

A fan favorite character is returning to the Walking Dead in the currently shooting third season. In the interest of spoilers, we will move the discussion and uncensored photo AFTER THE JUMP… Read the rest of this entry »

The terracotta warriors of the Xi’an archaeology dig in north-west China have become icons of the dynasties of long ago. More than 8,000 of these warriors have been excavated over the years and just yesterday more were unearthed.

The current phase of the excavation of the figures, which began in 2009, has revealed 310 more figures as well as chariots, weapons, war horses, drums and a shield.

The new finds include what appear to be military officials, a performance troupe and a headless warrior much larger than any figure unearthed so far.

Also interesting about the new figures that’ve been absent from those uncovered in the past? Coloration. Many of the newer statues still show signs of having been painted, one even showing as much detail as having had eyelashes at one point.

As exciting as this new finding is? Many archaeologists believe there is much more still waiting to be discovered.

[The Guardian]

A scientist, a winemaker and a fashion designer walk into a bar…

No. Really. They all walk into a bar. The totally not funny but awesome punchline is something called Micro’be’.

During a recent exploration of possible future fabrics and textiles at FNAS Laboratories in Australia.

According to the brains behind this:

“It is very delicate, comprising micro-fibrils of cellulose. The bacteria that caused the spoilage were a colony of Acetobacter, transforming wine into vinegar. The by-product of this activity is the formation of cellulose, a slimy, rubbery, skin-like substance.”

Drinking wine and having clothes manifest on your body could possibly undo thousands of years of tradition of it being the other way around.

[BioAlloy]

Go ahead and take a gander back through the lineage of human history and you’re going to find some real nightmare fuel. One such grotesquerie? How about a human ancestor with a shark head.

This now-extinct fish was among the first to split from sharks, whose bones are made of cartilage, to evolve into a line of tough-boned species that includes everything from bony fish to human beings. A new analysis finds that this controversial class of animals was more shark-like than expected.

“The common ancestors of all jawed vertebrates today organized their heads in a way that resembled sharks,” study researcher John Finarelli, a vertebrate biologist at University College, Dublin, said in a statement. “Given what we now know about the interrelatedness of early fishes, these results tell us that while sharks retained these features, bony fishes moved away from such conditions.”

This little darling lived roughly 290 million years ago, some 150 million years after sharks and bony fish families split.

[Fox News]

Brian and Andrew are joined by special guest Dr. Paul Zak, author of the new book The Moral Molecule. They discuss how much of the body needs to be replaced by machine parts before you are no longer considered human. Also, the likelihood of robot sexually transmitted diseases. Narcisism inspired by chat bots, how little we know about our own brains and why we are constantly building our next generation to live forever.

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

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Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination

Who says people don’t read newspapers anymore?

A Colorado woman lied to her employer when she told them she needed time off because her brother recently died. An icky, if not uncommon, crime. But she went too far when she tried to pad the fib but publishing an obituary in the local newspaper.

Needless to say her brother, who is very much alive, was shocked to hear the news. His wife talked to the local television station about the mess.

“She (explained to work that she) had a family emergency that turned into a death that she needed time off,” said Erica. “She had missed a lot of days of work and that was her way to get out of it.”

Edgar is recovering from surgery and wasn’t able to talk about the situation, but Erica agreed to an interview and read a section of the obit to CBS4: Edgar Balderrama, 28, of Greeley, died on January 23rd, 2012. Edward was a real hard worker. He had a great sense of humor and would make everybody laugh.

The lesson? Only lie about the deaths of relatives who are already dead.

[CBS Denver] via Ralph Ware

While it sounds like the last half of a Harry Potter book title, the Fire Urchin isn’t quite as fun.

Fire Urchins, which are found off the coast of Maui, Hawaii, get their name not from their typically blazing colorations but from the fantastically painful sting that comes from messing with one of these things. Not only are its red and white hair-like spikes venomous but at the base of each one of those tiny harpoons are small pincers containing even more poison just waiting to latch on to whatever prey wanders too close.

What’s fascinating about the above photo (looking directly down onto the urchin from above) and makes it really weird is that nature photographer David Fleetham caught, for the first time, one of these urchins in its final moments.

Looking at the center of the photo, you’ll see what looks like a bag of balls from a Chuck E. Cheese ball-pit…only not it’s quite as fun…

That sack is actually its entire insides being expelled through its mouth.

SO cute…right?

[New Scientist]

Theme park.

Fun, right? You probably just flash-backed to some awesome memories of going to a theme park with friends and family and having a really good time. You might start humming ‘It’s a Small World’.

Well knock it off. There’s a theme park in this world that is meant to smack those happy memories out of your brain, remind you you’re a sinner and take you into the darkest corners of the world and THAT’S where we’re going…not some pastel-colored, Laughing Place.

We’re going to Wang Saen Suk Gardens where, instead of the smiling face of a familiar and friendly cartoon mouse, there’s the park entrance sign which simply reads:

“Welcome To Hell.”

Here comes the fun-suck, kids.

Wang Saen Suk Gardens in Bangkok, Thailand has a theme not really touched on much here in the states…the theme of Buddhism’s version of hell.

Amongst the statuary on display in the gardens are a plethora of sinners in various states of torture including a guy having his man-parts tugged on by ravenous dogs. Sounds like the perfect family outing, doesn’t it?

If you quietly and sarcastically said, “Not really”, then you’d be surprised to find that this themed destination, while not as smile-inducing as finding out you’re going to Walt Disney World, is quite popular amongst families who take their children there to scare them into complying with the culture’s moral code.

If any of you fine people go? We totally want a sippy cup and a fridge magnet.

Thanks.

[i09]

If you’ve never heard of ‘The Icecreamists’, a cutting edge ice cream lab/shop/parlor in Covent, London where owner Mark O’ Connor came under fire last year for his breastmilk ice cream.

But breastmillk was SO last year.

This year, O’ Connor’s latest creation is called the Vice Lolly (for those that’ve never heard the term, ‘lolly’ refers to candy or sweets…there…we’ve performed our community service for the week).

Made from a mix of holy water imported from the spring at the Grotto of Massabielle at Lourdes, sugar and 80% absinthe frozen into the shape of a pistol.

The holy water, taken from a spring where a 14 year-old claimed she saw a vision of the Virgin Mary. Thousands now flock to the grotto hoping for miracle cures to whatever ailments they may have. Which is what makes this popsicle so expensive…priests sell the supposed miracle holy water for about $123 a liter (~1 quart).

Next time you’re in London, you can experience your own visions via this absinthe imbued popsicle for about $28 (USD).

[The Icecreamists]

Japan suffered a devastating tsunami in March of 2011.

Typically after something like that occurs, an occasional piece of debris will wash up on the shores of other continents following the currents and tides.

In the Pacific Northwest an object washed up on an Oregon beach that could signal the beginning of something on a scale never seen before.

A massive chunk of an actual dock almost seventy-feet long, twenty-feet wide and at least seven-feet tall made landfall a few days ago. Experts didn’t expect to see debris from the horrific 2011 tsunami until March 2013. It’s happening a lot faster than they anticipated.

According to the Japanese Consulate in Portland there may be at least three more of these enormous docks on their way to the beaches of the West Coast.

Fishermen in the area are concerned about the errant debris and the damage it could do to their vessels when it arrives without warning.

In April the Coast Guard opened fire and sank a mysterious ship entering the nearby waters.

Turns out it was a Japanese ‘Ghost Ship’ that had drifted on its own all the way into the shipping lanes of Alaska.

[NPR]

That thing pictured over there to the right? That thing that looks like hair from your shower drain or a Giger-inspired coffee mug? It’s a living organism that just might be the future of how we harvest material for all of our tech needs.

Wait…wha?

That weird-looking thing is actually a genetically engineered living thing that, depending on the materials used to create it, produces various types of material including fiberglass and even magnetic nanoparticles.

Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara are continually tweaking the original DNA combinations used in these things to produce not only materials which we are currently using but to produce new types of materials that hadn’t even existed before.

Remember when your grandma would crochet a sweater for you that you’d never wear? In about ten years time you’ll be crocheting a Kevlar-like sweater for your grandchildren except that instead of rolls of yarn? You’ll have a bunch of THESE things producing all your Kevlar in different colors sitting in an adorable little basket covered in holograms of geese wearing bonnets.

[ARSTechnica”]