A Japanese coal city abandoned in 1974 has been officially off-limits for anyone looking to explore the slowly decaying buildings that once was home to thousands. That did not stop this brave explorer and his trusty guide who not only infiltrated the infamous Battleship Island but took some super insane pictures while there.
A couple of week ago we told you about Wicked Laser’s Spyder III Pro laser, a ‘real-life light saber’ that can also potentially blind you and give you cancer.
Well, it turns out George Lucas noticed the resemblance to the powerful Jedi weapon and issued a cease & desist to Wicked Lasers. It comes in the form of a press release posted on Business Wire:
“It has come to our attention that a company called Wicked Lasers is selling a highly dangerous product out of Hong Kong that is designed to look like a lightsaber from Star Wars. This product is not licensed or approved by Lucasfilm in any way. We have demanded that Wicked Lasers immediately cease and desist their infringing activities. As Wicked Lasers itself admits, this product can cause serious injury to the user and other people. We strongly discourage consumers from purchasing it.”
The Spyder III is still available for about $200, but with the legal department of LucasFilm involved it’s likely to go the way of the Death Star at any time.
Justin Robert Young recounts his harrowing ordeal in the Forest with a Million Eyes. Brian, Andrew and Justin then step into the treacherous mental playground of a loyal listener and reveal their most deep-seated primal motivations when they are faced with surviving in a post-Zombie Apocalypse. One of them will become a ravenous fiend roving the ruins of civilization in search of fresh brains. Another will unleash his inner amoral self and cackle in delight as the world burns and search out female survivors to indulge his earthly desires. The final member of the trio will rise above tragedy and seek out vengeance for the horrific fate the befell is family and adopt a heroic new identity, and another, and another.
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Download url: http://www.itricks.com/upload/WeirdThings070510.mp3
[podcast]http://www.itricks.com/upload/WeirdThings070510.mp3[/podcast]
Everyday this week…Brett Rounsaville brings us the Weirdest “True Life” Alien Pictures ever taken.
Partly in a celebration of the anniversary of the Roswell incident, partly because it’s a shortened holiday week filled with travel and partly out of sheer laziness, this week we will be looking at some of the weirdest “real” alien photos you’ve ever seen (and hopefully I won’t babble on about them for too long, thereby totally negated the timesaving ploy of only dealing with pictures this week and forcing myself to look inward for time-wasting faults when sporting an already severely weakened ego. Uh-oh. This is going to be bad isn’t it…).
Let’s get on with it.
This is one of my early favorites. Not so much because of its startlingly genuine looking appearance and believability as a really for real alien, but because of its startlingly genuine looking appearance and believability as a candid snapshot of my grandmother passed out on her couch after an all night Charles Shaw bender.
Honestly, the resemblance is striking, the glassy eyes, the lolling tongue, the feverish sweat…I love you, Grandma. We’ll get you help. I promise.
Here’s a little game we’ll probably be playing a lot this week: this picture is all over the internet but I couldn’t, for the life of me, find the initial source. If you can figure out where this picture came from and the story behind it please leave the answer in the comments section to win a genuine, long-distance, virtual pat-on-the-back!
Show of hands. How many of you think aliens 1) exist, 2) have landed on Earth, 3) have made contact, and/or 4) are responsible for Glenn Beck’s career?
Skeletal remains of a primitive Neanderthals shows the males of the species were hormonally jacked and wielded “Popeye”-esqe arms.
Project leader Maria Mednikova told Discovery News that Neanderthal males hunted in the “extreme,” helping to beef up one arm.
“The common method for killing animals was direct contact with the victim,” said Mednikova, a professor in the Institute of Archaeology at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The next step for this area of research confirming the ultimate masculinity of the Neanderthal? Being printed in full on muscle tees to be worn by UFC fighters during their ring entrance.
Eyeborg Phase II from eyeborg on Vimeo.
Canadian Filmmaker Rob Spence has turned tragedy into tragedy-aide with his new invention.
Spence lost his eye in a shooting accident when he was a teenager. With the proliferation of cheap miniature cameras he realized he could record true first-person footage with a little tinkering. He’s installed the camera into a prosthetic eye, and while it’s doesn’t give him binocular vision it does allow him to shoot and stream footage of everything he sees. He’s also included a red light to enhance the creepy factor.
You can find out more about Spence’s futuristic project by checking out his blog.
Everyday this week…Brett Rounsaville brings us the Weirdest Murders ever committed.
Sometimes the best-laid plans of mice and men…no, wait…that was Steinbeck. Nevermind.
Today we’re talking about Upfield. Arthur Upfield. More specifically we’re talking about one of his better-known pieces of crime fiction and the weirdness that surrounds its history.
While still trying to “make it” as a writer despite two mild successes under his belt Upfield took a job as an itinerant laborer on Australia’s well known Rabbit Proof Fence project while he tried to come up with a new mystery for his fictional detective to solve. It wasn’t unusual for him to discuss the project of the campfire with other itinerant workers and eventually, with some help, he devised (bum bum bahh…) the “perfect murder.”
He figured if you burned the body, sifted out the left over bone bits, dissolved them in acid and threw all the ashes to the wind then there would be no evidence left with which to convict anyone. Great idea for a villain’s MO, right? Except with no evidence he found his plot stuck again with no great way for his detective to solve the case.
Back to the campfire.
Enter Snowy Rowles, yet another itinerant and one with a history of burglary. Without much to add to the conversations he nonetheless listened to the stories.
Soon after, two men disappeared and somehow Snowy ended up with a sweet new ride that looked suspiciously like one of the missing worker’s brand new Ford. It seems Snowy decided to take this whole “perfect murder” thing on a test drive.
Three murders deep, however, he got a little sloppy and didn’t quite do all the necessary “throwing to the wind” that might have been recommended in Upfield’s book.
In an additional case of bad luck, the officer assigned to the case instantly recognized Snowy as John Thomas Smith, an escaped convict. Suddenly the detective had all the time in the world to scrap up little tiny bits evidence that may or may not have been vaguely reminiscent of people while Snowy (er…Smith) flounder in a jail cell waiting to be executed.
No word on whether Upfield was more upset with providing inspiration for murder or with being so poorly emulated.
The end.
That’s all for this week gang! Now for my favorite part…time for the Weird Off! Let’s see your ranks when dealing with some of the Weirdest Murders ever committed. We have:
1. El Shaka – The man who wasn’t murdered…until he was.
2. Michael Malloy – The bum who wouldn’t die.
3. The world’s first homicidal robot
4. Nicholas Cocaign – The would-be soul stealing lung eater.
5. The “perfect murder”…on paper.
Sound off!
We’ve covered the antics of the zoo at Oberhausen, Germany before. To recap, they’ve forced all of their animals to make predictions on German national World Cup games. The most accurate is Paul, an octopus who has correctly predicted every outcome, including one German loss.
Like a tentacled love child of Punxsutawney Phil and Jimmy The Greek, Paul arose from his habitat and pontificated another German victory yesterday over Argentina.
BUT WAIT! The Argentines have countered with their own psychic animal, Sayco a dolphin from the port city of Mar del Plata. The mammal made a dramatic leap out of his pool to knock loose a blue and white ball, ignoring a similar sphere colored red, white and yellow.
Paul! Sayco! Which animal is truly diving the whispers of the future and which is just a filthy, water-logged liar?
[AFP]
The fastest case of human evolution is credited to the Tibetan people who have evolved the ability to live in high altitudes without mountain sickness when compared to the Han Chinese.
Congrats!
If we are going to live in a world where lightning kills a soccer team whilst leaving their opponents unharmed, why can’t it happen in Portland? Or Stockholm? Or London?
You know, somewhere where the buzz the next day would be about lapses in safety regulations and questions as to why the ref didn’t pull the players off the pitch as the weather deteriorated. Alas, it happened in the Republic of Congo where public opinion is convinced someone cursed the now deceased side.
The two sides were drawing 1-1 in the match in eastern Kasai Province when the lightning struck the visiting team.
“The athletes from [the home team] Basanga curiously came out of this catastrophe unscathed,” the paper said.
Congo is country gripped by war and now the populace has to worry about sports book addicted warlocks ginning up lightning bolts to merc visiting football teams. Awesome.
Thanks to Weird Things reader Dan for passing this along.
[BBC]
Everyday this week…Brett Rounsaville brings us the Weirdest Murders ever committed.
I’m sure you’ve all heard the phrase, “Eat your heart out…”. As in, “Eat your heart out Google, there’s a new iPhone in town,” or “Eat your heart out Thierry, I just ate your lung.”
Right, well…something like that.
Want more explanation? I thought you’d never ask.
In 2007, Nicolas Cocaign’s lawyer TRIED to explain that the French attempted rapist was crazy. He TRIED to get the dude shipped to a psych ward. Unfortunately, when the prison officials refused, it was up to Cocaign to provide the actual proof.
That’s where Cocaign’s cellmate, Thierry Baudry, comes in…or exits rather. After stabbing Baudry repeatedly in the chest with a pair of scissors Cocaign finished him off by suffocating him with a plastic bag. (Why a crazy rapist had access to a pair of scissors and a plastic bag I leave up to you to try to figure out.)
Apparently satisfied with his attempt to prove his insanity Cocaign then set out to prove that he also had no anatomical knowledge whatsoever.
In an effort to absorb Baudry’s soul by eating his heart, our buddy Cocaign, managed instead to eat a lung AND two chest muscles. (I like to think that after finishing the lung he looked down, saw another one and with a quiet sigh, said to himself, “crap.” Before resigning himself to chowing down on the more centrally located albeit no more heart-shaped chest muscles.)
Fun fact: At his subsequent murder trial the lead juror announced the verdict by standing up and singing:
He’s a plight,
He’s a plight,
He’s a plight,
COCAIGN.
(Shoot. I promised myself no more Eric Clapton jokes.)
Your thoughts? Have any other weird cannibal/murder stories? (Or Eric Clapton jokes?)
Tracking down rumors of a “Spider Forest” in our own South Florida backyard, Weird Things editor Justin Robert Young and myself found ourselves ambushed whereupon Mr. Young was savagely attacked by a spider. With Mr. Young locked in mortal combat with the beast, it was all I could do to shout encouragement and reach for my iPhone to try to capture the epic battle. The climax of which is embedded below (Warning: not for the feint of heart).
As soon as we set foot in the forest we got the sense of foreboding that WE DID NOT BELONG THERE. It wasn’t just the impossible number of spider webs and spiders that covered nearly every square foot of the forest, it was the sense that all of the webs were interconnected into one giant web that we had haplessly found ourselves walking into. Every footstep into the forest sent a silent vibration on to the meta web letting the spiders know that prey had been ensnared. A million eyes were upon us…
The deeper we went the darker it became as the foliage began to turn the forest into an arboreal cave. The other animals one might find in the forest were deathly silent. They were there to be sure, but moved around with a gallows quietness. Further in it became apparent that we had stepped into a labyrinth from which we may never emerge.
In the black heart of the forest the attack occurred under most peculiar circumstances. I was trailblazing and using my height to boldly knock down any webs that would impede our safe passage. As I scouted ahead I heard a shout from behind. I turned to see Justin punching into the air in a desperate attempt to defend himself from the vicious beast that was trying to devour him.
The spider moved too quickly to get an accurate description, but it was easily as large as my open hand. I helplessly watched as the spider flew around Justin using its web to trap him. No sooner would Justin try to swat at it then would the spider swing to the other side. It became immediately apparent what the spider’s strategy was; like a great white shark or a crocodile that uses a victim’s thrashing to ensnare them deeper into their jaws, this cunning creature was using Justin’s furious energy to wrap him into its web so tightly there would be no escape and the spider could drain him of his vital life fluids at its leisure.
With the image of a comatose Mr. Young searing into my mind’s eye, knowing the spider’s devious intent to use its victims vain attempts to free himself against him, I knew I had but one solution: Render the panicked Justin Robert Young unconscious lest he trap himself so surely in the creature’s web the only escape would be through the shedding of his mortal coil.
I tried to plan the quickest and most humane strike. A Ju-Jitsu punch to the head? A Mui-Tai kick to the chest to knock the wind from his lungs, making him take pause? All of this made complicated by my admittedly encyclopedic knowledge of martial arts techniques. Had I wanted to kill my target the choice would have been immediately and the results deadly. In this instance I deliberated for too long. For this I apologize to Mr. Young. My hesitation in striking him unconscious could have cost him is life. A life I’m no doubt certain he would gladly sacrifice in the service of Weird Things, but a life stricken down too soon no less.
Instinctively pulling my iPhone from my pocket to capture this conflict, the spider suddenly changed its tactics. It became clear that it had not been aware of my presence. This is not an uncommon occurrence. It’s been said that I have a preternaturally stealthy manner not unlike those invisible masters of Ninjitsu. Some of this is second nature to me, part of it is due to training I received in certain places from people to whom I have sworn secrecy. Once the spider sensed that I was there and all eight of its cruel eyes were locked on me its attack became a retreat. In the presence of a greater predator it knew this battle could not be won. For sure his plan to incapacitate Mr. Young was almost complete, but the moment I materialized into view it knew its hope of devouring Mr. Young unmolested was lost.
As quickly as it appeared, the spider faded back into the forest. I had to resist every urge to leap off the trail chase after it and kill the beast out of loyalty to my friend, but vengeance had to be put on hold to make sure that Mr. Young was indeed okay. As we made sure that he hadn’t been bitten and injected with some deadly venom, I realized that chasing after the creature would have been a very bad idea. Its retreat could have been a ploy to separate the two of us to divide our efforts to defend ourselves. My bloodlust impulse to seek out the foul creature and drive my fists into it carapace had to be abated. Now was the time for logic and reason.
We hastily made our exit.
In retrospect we are left with several questions. Since I was in the advance we know that the spider was laying in wait to attack. There was no web for Mr. Young to step into. Was this attack a genuine attempt? Or was it a feint to test our defenses? While my catlike ability to prowl unobserved may explain why the spider didn’t sense me and attack, it still doesn’t confidently explain why I wasn’t attacked at any point even though I was in the lead throughout the expedition.
I suspect the ambush was the forest as a whole trying to find out if it could pick off our party one by one from the rear until we were all ensnared. Unsure of our who or what we were, it sacrificed one spider to find out. I cannot say for sure what it made of us. Clearly it saw Mr. Young as prey. As for myself, I have no idea if it saw me as prey or predator. I do know that I am happy that we escaped with our lives intact. And next time, and there will be a next time, we will step into the forest more aware of its treachery and have perhaps some of our own to offer up in response.
In the meantime, although Mr. Young seemed unscathed beyond physical exhaustion from the ordeal, psychological speaking it was quite traumatic. I know he would appreciate your well wishes to a speedy mental recovery. Please let him know in the comments below that your thoughts are with him.
It is what it says.
Thank you to Weird Things reader Paul for sending this in.
Last week we reported on how the FAA is clearing the way for Terrafugia’s new flying car. Now, thanks to the power of the Youtubes, we have video of this wondrous flying machine. It’s sleek as a thoroughbred, it’s seats are a feather bed, but I think I’ll let the 40 people who have already put down a $10,000 deposit test it for a while to make sure it doesn’t go ‘Bang-Bang.’