Archive for April, 2014

Mysterious Figure Caught on Camera During Game!

Monday, April 28th, 2014

Video of a weird figure quickly traveling through the stands during a game at the Hernando Siles Stadium in La Paz, Bolivia has hit the internet in the last couple of days.

Quickly going viral, the clip has split viewers. Some, like many of the commentators who witnessed it in-camera, believe it’s some kind of apparition and have openly admitted to being a little freaked out. Skeptics are claiming it’s a reflection of some kind.

There’s no doubt that some weird figure is rapidly moving through the stadium. But what is it?

Post your theories below.

[Telegraph UK]

Town of Dolls is Just as Eerie as You Think It Is!

Sunday, April 27th, 2014

Valley of Dolls from Fritz Schumann on Vimeo.

There’s something unsettling about a small village in Nagaro, Japan. The village, located about 90 minutes from anything resembling civilization is like something out of a Twilight Zone episode.

Over 350 motionless dolls resembling people no longer living populate the small village.

Created by Ayano Tsukimi, the dolls were something that she just started doing one day.

Now the entire town is populated by dolls in various places and enacting the daily activities of the once bustling little village.

While Tsukimi’s intentions are innocently endearing, there’s something quietly frightening about walking into the now deserted school (where it looks like everyone just got up and walked out mid-day leaving EVERYTHING behind and where it was when they walked) and finding students with button eyes and stitched mouths blankly staring ahead at their just-as-creepy teacher waiting for a lesson that is never going to happen…

Unless they all freeze when the sun comes out and wait for the night to continue their ‘lesson’…

[AwesomeRobo]

World’s Smallest Magazine Cover Sets Record – Blows Minds!

Sunday, April 27th, 2014

To help demonstrate a a new nano-scale technology, a group of scientists at IBM have recreated a Kids’ NatGeo magazine cover…

So small that it would take 2,000 of them to cover a single grain of sand.

Just keep staring blankly straight ahead because we’re all doing that now.

And it hurts.

[Gizmag Emerging]

Podcast: Space Roar

Monday, April 21st, 2014

Skitched 20110225 175343

Easter surprise under the deck for one woman, SpaceX launches a massive rocket, was it a success? Religion is discussed. Hold on to your butts.

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/WeirdThings042014.mp3

[podcast]http://www.itricks.com/upload/WeirdThings042014.mp3[/podcast]

 

 

 

Picks:

Brian:

The Martian

Andrew:

Harry Potter Wizard’s Collection

Justin:

FSL Tonight — Season 4, Kickstarter

Terrifying Insects Back From Edge of Extinction

Thursday, April 10th, 2014

There are a LOT of animals being saved from extinction…rhinos, cheetahs, snow leopards, etc,. Most of them are regal or furry or cute or just plain huggable.

The Weta Punga are not ANY of those things.

Weta Punga literally means “God of Ugly Things”.

Nailed it.

The Weta are squirrel-sized insects that can only be described as terrifying. But that’s not stopping a group of animal lovers from bringing the animal back from the edge of extinction. Once the weta flourished in and around the islands of New Zealand. Invasive and non-native species took care of that until only small numbers of the giant insect remained.

Researchers in Auckland began a breeding program to…uh…yay…bring back the populations of weta that once roamed the islands.

Between this year and last almost 400 of these creepers were released into the wild to bring back nightmares to anyone visiting the islands.

[Stuff.co.nz Auckland]

Strange Floating Sphere Records Us as it Wanders

Thursday, April 10th, 2014

Created by a couple of artists who were interested in the ‘unobserved’ moments of sound that go on in places like stairwells, hallways and, unfortunately for commuters witnessing the bizarre sight of this freaking thing, subways.

Filled with a mixture that is half oxygen, half helium (“balloonium”), the weirdly unsettling, 3 foot nylon sphere floats around recording ambient audio which it then replays on a delay of about twenty minutes.

Although it was meant to be a completely innocent object you can’t shake the feeling watching it cruise around that this thing is part of some Cronenbergian horror film and that the ‘innocent’ floating black sphere wandering the world whispering ghost-like conversations of the past is about to shed its nylon skin and reveal its real purpose.

Says one of its creators:

“A lot of people do interpret it as this sinister moving presence that’s following people around.”

Might be because of all the design choices that could’ve happened like a cute kitten or a doe-eyed baby animal or even the Teenage Mutant Turtles in an awesome group shot you chose a creepy, opaque ball that slowly floats around whispering voices.

[WIRED]

Podcast: The G Word

Monday, April 7th, 2014

Skitched 20110225 175343

Chupacabra captured but is it what we think it is? Blue Origin mysteries revealed? Can they get us to space? Another Goblin outbreak sweeps Africa and only the Weird Things gang can solve it.

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/WeirdThings04062014.mp3

[podcast]http://www.itricks.com/upload/WeirdThings04062014.mp3[/podcast]

 

Picks:

Brian:

Star Wars: Allegiance

Andrew:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Justin:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Disney Develops Robotic ‘Pixelbots’

Sunday, April 6th, 2014

Disney is continually developing things that will make us hand over a substantial amount of cash to play in their parks.

Recently the Disney Research Hub’s YouTube Channel dropped a video showing something called PixelBots.

As entertainment in the real world becomes more interactive due to the public’s insatiable appetite for new experiences, companies like Disney continue to push into new areas of the interactive experience.

What will Disney be using these lemming-like little ‘bots for? Hard to say.

We’ll let you all role-play the part of an Imagineer in the comments.

[DisneyResearchHub YouTube Channel]

Man Builds Shuttle Replica – On His House

Sunday, April 6th, 2014

There’s always that one house on your street.

You know…the one that looks like the sun is continuously exploding each night during December?

In China that person is a 60 year-old farmer who:

A. Is a HUGE fan of the space shuttle

B. A little eccentric.

C. Knows something about the future of mankind that we don’t.

Either way it’s pretty amazing and there’s probably of a lot of secretly jealous homeowners reading this right now.

[Technabob]

Texas Family Claims To Have Caught a Chupacabra

Saturday, April 5th, 2014

Jamie and Bubba (sometimes reality just seems too good to be true) Stock of Texas are claiming they’ve caught a chupacabra or, as we’ve come to endearingly call them on this podcast, ‘Chupy‘.

While most chupacabras are referred to as vicious goat-suckers that attack livestock and occasionally people, the photo of the alleged creature must be the exception to the rule…

Unless its disarmingly ‘please love me’ face is a ruse to get closer to its next human victim.

Why do they believe it’s one of the elusive cryptids?

Because when Jamie Stock came to look at the creature that Bubba had captured she identified it right away:

“Bubba that looks like a baby chupacabra.”

Furthermore, “the Bubba’s” neighbor stated:

“I hunted racoons for 20 years with dogs and I ain’t ever seen anything that looks like that right there.”

So there you have it.

Based on all the evidence and the expert testimonials? A Texas family has captured a chupacabra

Please say you’re getting the sarcasm.

[Independent UK]

Scientists Grow a Baby Zebra Fish From Stem Cells

Saturday, April 5th, 2014

Scientists have been trying to find the elusive combination of instructions that would cause stems cells to become an actual living thing.

That elusive secret just ran out of places to hide.

University researchers were able to cause cells to grow into an entire animal!

The result of all this is that there’s now a baby zebra fish embryo in the world that was created completely from stem cells by scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

Absorb that for a minute.

While this discovery is HUGE and of immeasurable value to the creation of organs for those who need them, there’ll probably be some backlash from torch bearers and wielders of pitchforks who want to march across the U of V campus lawn.

It sounds like something straight out of the past few decades of science fiction stories…

Especially when one of the scientists drops a line like:

“We have generated an animal by just instructing embryonic cells the right way…” and “…we can pretty much do what we want.”

They’re growing mice next.

And then?

Probably us.

(cue lightning)

[PhysOrg]