June 2012 – Page 2 – Museum of the Weird

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Guest Blogger

UPDATE: BALTIC SEA ‘ANOMALY’ IS A GIANT MUSHROOM!

Rendition of the underwater exploration from vaghauk.deviantart.com

We posted a story a couple of weeks ago detailing the discovery of a strange, underwater anomaly laying at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, while it most certainly looked like the Millenium Falcon had crashed into the sea floor, it turns out it is an absolutely humongous underwater mushroom!

Here’s the very first set of pictures from the team that went down to figure this out:

Huffington Post writes:

The unidentified circular object that has held the world in a viral grip for a year probably isn’t an alien spacecraft after all.

Over the past few days, divers have photographed the unusual anomaly on the seabed nearly 300 feet below the surface.

According to news released Friday by the OceanX treasure hunters who discovered the anomaly on June 19, 2011, “first they thought it was just stone or a rock cliff, but after further observations, the object appeared more as a huge mushroom, rising 10-13 feet from the seabed, with rounded sides and edges.

“The object had an egg-shaped hole leading into it from the top, as an opening. On top of the object they also found strange stone circle formations, almost looking like small fireplaces. The stones were covered in something resembling soot,” reports the OceanX website.

One of the OceanX divers, Stefan Hogeborn, a veteran of more than 6,000 dives in his 20-year career, is completely puzzled by what he saw.

WOMAN BECOMES ‘PREGNANT’ AFTER EATING SQUID

It seems squid never give up and will attempt impregnating anything, even your mouth as you’re trying to eat the little guys, how rude!

The Interntational Business Times writes:

A 63-year-old South Korean woman was shocked to learn she “became pregnant” with 12 baby squid after eating a portion of calamari. The story — definitely giving new meaning to the term “Octomom” — was detailed in a scientific paper authored by researchers at the Kwandong University College of Medicine.

Here’s what happened: The unnamed woman, who we will refer to here as “New Octomom,” said she was eating a portion of whole squid when she felt an extremely sharp pain in her mouth. She told doctors she could feel something in her mouth, which she described as “bug-like organisms.””She did not swallow the portion, but spat it out immediately,” the researchers wrote. “She complained of a pricking and foreign-body sensation in the oral cavity.”

After the woman was hospitalized, doctors discovered “baby cephalopods” — tiny pods covered in a cementlike material to make them stick — attached to the inside of her mouth. The pods, which covered her gums, tongue and cheek, were filled with an “ejaculatory apparatus” and sperm, with the apparatus discharging the sperm very forcefully.

“Twelve small, white spindle-shaped, bug-like organisms stuck in the mucous membrane of the tongue, cheek, and gingiva were completely removed, along with the affected mucosa,” the researchers said. “On the basis of their morphology and the presence of the sperm bag, the foreign bodies were identified as squid spermatophores.”

16 YEAR OLD BOY SURVIVES 3FT SPEAR IN SKULL

This x-ray shows the harpoon still lodged in this young mans head.

Here’s one fishing trip that will never be forgotten and one big catch no one could have ever suspected.

Metro News writes:

Yasser Lopez was swimming in a lake near his home in Miami-Dade, Florida, when a friend accidentally set off the gun while he was loading it.

The spear entered the 16-year-old’s head just above his right eye, penetrated through his brain, before coming out the back of his skull.

Miraculously, no vital blood vessels in the brain were damaged by the harpoon and the fortunate youngster is now recovering at the Jackson Memorial Hospital (JMH).

JMH Neurosurgeon Ross Bullock admitted it was astonishing that the lodged object had not hit any vital parts of the brain.

‘It’s a miracle the spear missed all the main blood vessels of the brain,’ he said. ‘The most important thing is to resist that temptation to pull that thing out.’

Doctors had to use fire and rescue equipment to cut away a section of the spear so Lopez could be X-rayed.

The rest of the spear was removed by doctors following an extensive three hour operation.

DOES TIME HAVE AN ENDING?

Two Spanish scientists have come together to form a new theory that states that time may, in fact, have an end point.

The Telegraph writes:

The theory of time running out was devised by researchers from two Spanish universities trying to explain why the universe appeared to be spreading continuously and accelerating.

Observations of supernovae, or exploding stars, found the movement of light indicated they were moving faster than those nearer to the centre of the universe.

But the scientists claimed the accepted theory of an opposite force to gravity, known as dark energy, was wrong, and said the reality was that the growth of the universe was slowing.

Professor Jose Senovilla, Marc Mars and Raul Vera from the University of the Basque Country and the University of Salamanca said the deceleration of time was so gradual, it was imperceptible to humans.

Their proposal, published in the journal Physical Review D, claimed dark energy does not exist and that time was winding down to the point when it would finally grind to a halt long after the planet ceased to exist.

‘BUBBLE SKIN MAN’ IS HOPING FOR A CURE SOON

Chandra Wisnu and his wife of 33 years, Nanik Tri Haryani.

We’ve written a story on Chandra before and his amazing strength and will-power to contiue on in the face of severe adveristy. Well now he’s reaching out to people all over the world to help him find a cure but, not so much for him, for his children who have begun to develop the same tumors that have caused his life to be so difficult.

The Sun writes:

Chandra Wisnu, 57, is thought to be one of the few people in the world with a rare skin disease which causes large, bubble-like lumps to develop all over his body.

The married dad-of-four, from Indonesia, rarely leaves his house and when he does he is forced to cover his face with a balaclava and wear sunglasses for fear of frightening or being ridiculed by others.

Lesions began to develop on Chandra’s face when he was just 19.

By the time he was 24 they had spread to his back and by age 32 they almost completely covered his body.

During the early stages of the disease, Chandra’s parents took him to see a number of doctors and dermatologists who were baffled by the severity of his symptoms.

He was told the condition was genetic and may be caused by an abnormality in the nervous system that causes benign tumours to develop on the skin or bone.

He was prescribed a number of creams — but they did nothing to stop the lesions from spreading.

Unable to find a cure and no longer able to afford medical treatment, Chandra was forced to live with the bizarre condition.

…

Chandra has now decided to unveil his face to the world in a bid to find a cure for the disease after discovering his eldest son Martin Ananda, 32, and daughter Lis Candra, 26, have begun to develop it too.

The brave father cannot afford for his children to see a doctor and fears they too will end up looking like him.

MAN CHOOSES TO LIVE WITH 100 POUND SCROTUM

Wesley Warren Jr. has an unusual condition that afflicts a certain part of his body that none of us wish to see any harm done to, ever.

The Las Vegas man has recently chosen to live with the extra 100 pounds he has to carry around, rather than having it surgically removed courtesy of the ‘Dr. Oz Show’ saying he’s to scared to do it, and I don’t blame him.

The Huffington Post writes:

A man who made headlines for his 100-pound scrotum now says he turned down an offer for free surgery to get rid of his bulging problem.

GRAPHIC content below:

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports thatWesley Warren Jr. declined an opportunity to have the “Dr. Oz Show” pay for the medical expenses associated with the surgery, partially because they wanted exclusive interview rights.

But Warren bristles at the notion that he won’t get surgery because he doesn’t want to lose the fame he’s garnered because of his condition, which is caused by an excess of watery fluid collecting around his testicles.

“Who would want to live like this?” he said. “I just don’t want to die during the operation.”

ANIMAL CRUELTY OR ALIEN DEATH RAY?

Are cows being hit with an alien death-ray in Canada? Picture courtesy of worth1000.com

A Canadian farmer that’s facing trial pretty soon over the death of many of his cattle, is doing all he can to get out of his animal cruelty charges, and then some.

Werner Bock claims that he’s not killing his own cows, in fact, he says aliens are. …with a death-ray!

Here’s a video that shows Bock’s cows in poor health and gives a possible explanation for their illnes other than mistreatment and an alein death-ray:

Huffington Post writes:

A Canadian farmer has lost at least 250 cows in the past 10 years. While the government has charged him and says he failed to feed them, the farmer claims the alien defense.

Werner Bock has posted plenty of YouTube videos in recent years detailing his cattle’s malnourished appearance, sunken features and hair loss. He declares that his cows were the victims of “death rays,” some form of alien weapon that’s been covered up by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

“At least 250 head of cattle have died from what we call a death beam,” Bock said on camera in May of last year. “Where the atmospheric air is manipulated into a death beam, focused on the noses of the animals.”

The animals breath in the death beam and slowly die, the eastern New Brunswick farmer claims.

IS THE SHARK MANS’ ANCIENT ANCESTOR?

Is the shark a common ancestor of humans and fish?

Recent studies have revealed that humans may have evolved from a shark that dates back to 300 million years ago.

As research continues, more and more evidence is discovered that points our ancestral lines to a prehistoric shark that existed in a time when fish with cartilage and fish with bones (what humans are said to evolve from) were not separated into two different evolutionary lineages, yet.

Telegraph writes:

The primitive fish named Acanthodes bronni was the common ancestor of all jawed vertebrates on Earth – including mankind, according to new research.

Acanthodes, a Greek word for “spiny”, existed before the split between the earliest sharks and the first bony fishes – the lineage that would eventually include human beings.

Fossils have been found in Europe, North America and Australia.

Compared with other spiny sharks it was relatively large, measuring a foot long. It had gills instead of teeth, large eyes and lived on plankton.

Professor Michael Coates, a biologist at the University of Chicago, said: “Unexpectedly, Acanthodes turns out to be the best view we have of conditions in the last common ancestor of bony fishes and sharks.

“Our work is telling us the earliest bony fishes looked pretty much like sharks, and not vice versa. What we might think of as shark space is, in fact, general modern jawed vertebrate space.”

LOST ‘WHITE CITY’ OF GOLD FOUND IN HONDURAS

Honduras has dense jungles that could hide just about anything, even an ancient city.

Researchers at the University of Houston, together with the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) have combined efforts to map an area of Honduras that legend says is hiding a full ‘White City’ of gold.

Looks like they found it.

Daily Mail writes:

A team of scientists using advanced laser mapping have detailed a remote region of Honduras that may have revealed the legendary lost city of Ciudad Blanca, known as the ‘White City’ of gold.

Researchers from the University of Houston and the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) flew over the Mosquitia region in a small plane shooting billions of laser pulses at the ground to create a 3D digital map of the topology beneath the jungle canopy. Compiling their data, the analysts revealed what appears to be man-made elevation changes that are thought to show a forgotten city plaza dotted with pyramids reclaimed by the jungle.

According to legend, Ciudad Blanca or the ‘White City’ is full of gold and has been sought out by explorers and treasure hunters since conquistador Hernando Cortes first made reference to it in a 1526 letter to King Charles V of Spain. Inspired by this legend, cinematographer and Ciudad Blanca enthusiast Steven Elkins sought backing from private investors to pay for the team at NCLAM to use their laser mapping technology to chart the forest floor of Mosquitia.

Over the course of a week, the NCALM and University of Houston engineers flew over 60 square miles of forest in their dual-engine Cessna planes. And at the end of each day, the data was transferred to Bill Carter, a University of Houston engineer who works with the NCLAM. He discovered the first indications of what appeared to be man-made structures in the jungle.

‘I’m the only person right now on the planet that knows that there’s these ruins,’ said Carter as he recalled his thoughts when he saw straight lines and right angles on the 3D digital map. ‘My wife walked in and looked over my shoulder and she was the second person to know.’

This was one of the first times that laser mapping, specifically light detection and ranging (LiDAR) had been used to locate ancient ruins.

CREMATORIUM BURNS DOWN WHEN LADY IS MORE THAN THEY CAN HANDLE

Fire fighters had to battle the blaze caused by excessive body-fat clogging the air filters.

A crematorium went up in flames the other day when the rather-obese woman set to be cremated was too large and had more body-fat than usual ended up clogging the air vents, causing falmes, black smoke and soot to pour out of the building.

The Province writes:

A Graz Austria crematorium caught on fire this week. The unusual part of this whole bazaar incident is that they were cremating a 200 kg body that caused the fire. Usually there’s not enough fat on a body to cause such a fire but this one was extremely fat and started the place on fire billowing black smoke from the building. Graz firefighters rushed to the scene, where they were confronted by thick black smoke which, in the words of the Daily Mail, left them “covered with a layer of sooty grease”. See picture above. It’s the same principal as on a BBQ when the fat drips off the chicken or meat and flares up.

They eventually knocked the fire down by aiming water through the vents which are used to clear the filters of the cremation oven. This is not an uncommon occurrence as its happened in Germany and Switzerland before but now they have a weight limit. Graz likely will also instigate this weight limit in the crematorium.