Month: July 2015

Posted on by

Robber disgraces rodents everywhere

Yesterday, we talked about the heroic bomb-sniffing rats of Cambodia and how rats are being used as other kinds of service animals. We also talked about how some of these unconventional service animals are struggling with acceptance because some people find them to be alarming.

Today we feature a human criminal who is adding to that fear by robbing a store dressed as a mouse.

https://youtu.be/Wc7dbK-uB2E

Canadian police released this video of a man robbing a shop dressed as a giant mouse. You can see details in this Sky News article. Not only is this man doing harm to society, he is harming the image of innocent animals and continuing to drive the wedge deeper between people and rodents of all kind.

If you must disguise yourself for a robbery, wear the mask of a politician. At least there the mistrust will do us good.

Posted on by

Unusual safety animals in Cambodia

We’ve all seen stories of animals that have been trained to help humans. We’ve heard of carrier pigeons, rescue dogs, and medical service animals. Now, meet the bomb-sniffing rat.

Pouch rats in Cambodia are replacing dogs used to sniff out explosives.

Their small size and agility, combined with their extraordinary sense of smell, makes these pouch rats an ideal, if unexpected, service animal. Of course, these aren’t the only service rats. As seen in this article, rats are being used in ways that were normally reserved for more conventional pets.

Not everyone is OK with some of these unconventional service animals. Daniel Green has a seizure-sensing red-tailed boa constrictor named Redrock and is dealing with legal challenges because it is not considered an approved service animal.

We hope that Cambodia’s heroic rats will help people to appreciate that any creature can connect with humans, even if it seems a little weird.

Posted on by

Flame on—spontaneous human combustion

A recent rash of news articles has focused on the strange case of the nine-day-old child of Karna Perumal, an agricultural labourer, and his wife Rajeswari from T. Parangini in Villuppuram district of Tamil Nadu. According to some, this baby was a victim of Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC), a condition where a person bursts into flames, apparently without any external cause. This incident is, understandably, controversial, so I’m not going to focus on it today, but it’s not the only case of SHC to get attention. Here is video of a case involving a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran who survived an incident when his feet burst into flames.

The idea of SHC began appearing in fiction as early as 1834. Charles Dickens even used the concept in his story Bleak House.

Does this really happen? We’re honestly not sure. It’s just another weird mystery in our wonderfully weird world!

Posted on by

What happened over Rendelsham Forest?

In a recent article we referenced statements by former Canadian Defense Minister, Paul Hellyer, about his belief that we were being visited by beings from other planets and that the US government was covering it up. Now we find footage featuring another witness that we would expect to be credible describing a detailed UFO experience with a similar claim.

US Army deputy commander Colonel Charles Halt recounts his experience, December 1980, when he witnessed UFO activity over Rendelsham Forest in Suffolk, England.

Often, a criticism of such accounts is that The witnessed are untrained observers or not credible. In both of these cases we have people who should have good authority on these matters. Surely their experiences should create curiosity. Stories like these remain on the fringe, however. Fortunately, we at the Museum of the Weird continue to look in the shadowy areas of the news and bring this to you.

Do you think Earth is visited by creatures from other worlds? Do you think they are here to help us or harm us? We’ll continue to share the best evidence we can find.

Posted on by

Death by selfie

Recently, Russia released a pamphlet advising people about the deadly consequences of taking selfies. Apparently, the carelessness of people trying to capture themselves for social-media posterity has become so dangerous that people need to be warned. Warned about what? Take a look at these icons from the pamphlet. Are any of these you?

RussianSelfies
Icons from Russian Selfie pamphlet highlight some important “dont’s”

Is this seriously a problem? Are people actually selfying themselves to death? Scoff if you will, but watch this video of several deadly selfie incidents from around the world first.

https://youtu.be/5CNDwJU1wDQ

If we were going to bet on a way for the human race to end itself we would have gone for nuclear war or something like that. We never even had a bet on Selfie Apocalypse. So, if you need to take pictures of yourself, please be careful. Even better, come and do it in the safety of our Museum with our life-sized King Kong!

Of course, we should also remind you that you should not send selfies to loved ones after you die, either. (See our earlier article about a selfie from Hell, literally.)

Posted on by

Print me a part

In an article the other day we talked about a tragic story where parts of remains were confiscated by the state. While that battle is being waged we discover an area where technology is creating body parts using 3D printing technology.

Here is video showing a heart valve replacement.

According to this article by Forbes Magazine, there are several areas where 3D printing may revolutionize medicine by fashioning replacements rather than requiring donors.

Besides heart valves here are other parts that may get the 3D treatment:

  • Blood vessels—artificial blood vessels have been produced which might be used in transplants
  • Skin—The body’s largest organ is hard to do without. There are emergency medical applications and cosmetic ones.
  • Liver cells—While not intended for “internal use,” these artificial liver cells can be used in lab experiments to mimic liver behavior to aid in research and medicine testing.
  • Ears—Apparently ear structure lends itself rather well to 3D printing, and a number of people are receiving bionic ears

Of course, that’s just the beginning. There is work being done to replace bones and other tissues. Some people complain that working with a doctor is a lot like going to a body shop. This may become even more true as parts become more available.

Of course, this also makes one wonder about what will happen with body augmentation for style and function. As we get better at creating parts will people begin to enhance themselves? You know they will! The future is going to look pretty weird. Maybe that’s not so bad.

 

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Scary wasp

Pepsis formosa02
By Davehood at en.wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia) [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons
If you don’t like bugs, this one may not be for you. Have you ever been stung by a wasp? Painful? It’s not nearly the pain you’d experience if you’d been stung by the Tarantula Hawk. This ginormous wasp has the most painful sting on the planet, according to the Schmidt pain index.

What in the world requires this insect to be so bad-assed? It hunts tarantulas! This wasp attacks tarantulas and lays eggs inside, which grow in the host, eventually emerging and devouring it. Ain’t nature beautiful? Here is video of a battle between a Tarantula Hawk and its prey. These are tough little things!

 

 

Posted on by

Some parts may not be included

If it’s never happened to you, it’s difficult to understand the tragedy of losing a loved one, especially in a death that requires an autopsy. The tension is terrible as you wait for the body to be returned from the authorities so that you can begin the process of burial or cremation. What if you discovered that parts of your loved one were missing? confiscated by the authorities?

This actually happened to the family of Brian Shipley of Staten Island who died in a 2005 car crash. Years after he was buried, a highschool classmate was doing a tour of the medical examiner’s office and found his friend’s brain preserved and proudly displayed in a jar. The family had no idea about this.

The Shipleys sued, as their beliefs require that the body be buried as a whole. The case has finally made it through the court. According to an article in the New York Daily News, the court decided it is legal for a medical examiner to keep body parts from an autopsy for their own use and that they don’t even have to tell the family.

Is it reasonable for a medical examiner to be able to keep a few souvenirs of their work? What do we say to people whose beliefs require a full accounting of the remains? Should people be compensated in some way when the state keeps a piece or two?

Personally, your author finds this pretty outrageous.

Posted on by

Which aliens are you rooting for?

You’re stopped on a deserted road, responsibly pulled over as you text your friends. Suddenly, the phone goes dead. The car goes dead. You are stranded in the dark in the middle of nowhere. A light, as bright as the sun, erupts in the darkness and you are chilled to the bone as you realize you are about to have a close encounter with alien life. But which ones will it be?

According to the article,  The 6 Alien Species Currently Fighting for Control Over Earth, not all aliens are alike. Does this seem fantastic to you? Then maybe you missed this interview by former Canadian Defense Minister, Paul Hellyer, as he went on international television to discuss his personal knowledge of 4 major species. Here is an excerpt from this interview.

The full, half-hour interview is available on YouTube. We talked about Mr. Hellyer’s startling perspective in a previous article from 2011. He has not strayed from his story and continues to promote his belief that we are being watched and warned to get our act together.

Does that sound familiar? It’s the plot of a 1951 movie called The Day the Earth Stood Still. We found a radio adaption of this classic story broadcast by the Lux Radio Theater on January 4, 1954. You can listen here or download the mp3 for some drive-time entertainment. Is Hellyer recalling a famous science fiction plot, or is this story a reflection of real events?

Are we being visited by creatures from another world? Are they genuinely interested in our well-being, or are we just curiosities to them, to be studied and experimented on as we would with rats and insects? Have you had an alien encounter? Tell us about it!

Posted on by

If you give a mouse a Mountain Dew

We’ve all heard some of the food horror stories: animal and human body parts found mixed amongst the fries; things found packaged in the factory. Often these are just tales. But there’s an interesting twist to this one.

Around 2009, a man named Ronald Ball claimed he bought a can of Mountain Dew from a vending machine which contained the remains of a mouse. That is disturbing! Perhaps more disturbing was the response that PepsiCo filed with the court an 8 April 2010. An affidavit from Lawrence McGill, a licensed veterinarian with a speciality in veterinary pathology stated that after a mouse submerged in Mountain Dew for 30 days would “have been transformed into a ‘jelly-like’ substance.” I’ll give you a moment to ponder that while I take a sip of my beverage.

Is this possible? Would leaving a mouse in a can of Mountain Dew actually cause it to dissolve? Let’s try science!

Explorer Multimedia helps find the truth with an experiment where they soak a rodent in Mountain Dew for 30 days. You might not want to view this over lunch.

There you have it! Clearly Ronald Ball was having us on. Shame on you, Ronald! And, may I add? EEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!