Weekly Weird News – Page 57 – Museum of the Weird

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Guest Blogger

FLYING CAR FROM THE FUTURE IS HERE

The Terrafugia Transition Flying Car converts from street-legal to flight-worthy in minutes.

Now, this may not be the super-futuristic flying car you might have seen in amazing movies like “The Fifth Element”, but sure beats one that doesn’t fly.

Wired Magazine writes:

There’s a flying car coming to the New York International Auto Show this week. The Terrafugia Transition is a two-seat airplane with foldable wings, four wheels and turn signals. Over the past few years the Massachusetts company has called its creation a “roadable aircraft” and lately, a “street legal airplane.” But ahead of the Transition’s first appearance at an auto show, it’s perhaps more appropriate to simply call it what it is: a flying car.

Terrafugia and its Transition have been around for several years, but until now the company has largely stuck to the aviation community. But Terrafugia co-founder and CEO Carl Dietrich says that looking at the people who have placed orders for the $279,000 vehicle, they thought it would be worth looking outside the aviation world.

“We’ve noticed in our order backlog there are actually a fair number of people who are not currently pilots who are putting deposits down to order a Transition.”

So the company is coming to New York to gauge interest in a flying car from the non-pilot sector of the public, hoping the attraction of a flying car can create a few pilots and most importantly, customers.

MYSTERY OBJECT FALLS IN SIBERIA

I’ve always been fascinated by the Tunguska Explosion, and this story brings it to mind. File under latest Russian UFO mystery:

An unidentified glowing object is said to have crashed down from the skies in Russia’s Siberia, causing a powerful explosion. A search for the mysterious item is underway amid speculations of what on Earth it could be.

Witnesses describe seeing a bright glow covering the sky, followed by a shining object falling with a strange clanging sound and disappearing in the distance with a blast.

The unidentified object supposedly fell in the taiga forest of the Irkutsk region, 15 kilometers from the nearest village of Vitim, on Friday night. The head of the regional administration said a group of researchers has been sent to inspect the area and question witnesses.

“We will be able to say what it is, only when we see the thing itself and the place where it fell,” explained head of the region Aleksandr Sergey. “The investigators, together with hunters are going there on snowmobiles”.

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Guest Blogger

ANTI-BEARD GEL INVENTED BY SCIENTISTS

Shaving may soon be a thing of the past!

As a man, I have to put up with a constant battle between mother-nature and the modern business world, shaving my beard.

Well, it seems I may not have to worry about it much longer due to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania coming up with an anti-shaving gel that not only works on men, but women too!

Daily Mail writes:

It’s estimated the average woman spends £12,000 in her lifetime in a bid to get silky smooth skin.

But thanks to a scientific discovery shaving could soon be a thing of the past.

A team from the University of Pennsylvania found that a drug, widely used to treat viral infections of the eye, helped stop the growth of unwanted hair when it was added to a rub-on gel.

A trial involving male participants showed the product kept facial hair at bay for up to six weeks.

It is now hoped that it can be developed into an effective treatment for women.

VIKING ROBOTS FOUND LIFE ON MARS IN 1976, SCIENTISTS SAY

New analysis of 36-year-old data, resuscitated from printouts, shows that NASA found life on Mars, an international team of mathematicians and scientists conclude in a paper published this week.

Further, NASA doesn’t need a human expedition to Mars to nail down the claim, neuropharmacologist and biologist Joseph Miller, with the University of Southern California’sKeck School of Medicine, told Discovery News.

“The ultimate proof is to take a video of a Martian bacteria. They should send a microscope — watch the bacteria move,” Miller said.

“On the basis of what we’ve done so far, I’d say I’m 99 percent sure there’s life there,” he added.

Miller’s confidence stems in part from a new study that reanalyzed results from a life-detection experiment conducted by NASA’s Viking Mars robots in 1976.

Researchers crunched raw data collected during runs of the Labeled Release experiment, which looked for signs of microbial metabolism in soil samples scooped up and processed by the two Viking landers. General consensus of scientists has been that the experiment found geological, not biological, activity.

The new study took a different approach. Researchers distilled the Viking Labeled Release data, provided as hard copies by the original researchers, into sets of numbers and analyzed the results for complexity. Since living systems are more complicated than non-biological processes, the idea was to look at the experiment results from a purely numerical perspective.

They found close correlations between the Viking experiment results’ complexity and those of terrestrial biological data sets. They say the high degree of order is more characteristic of biological, rather than purely physical, processes.

Critics counter that the method has not yet been proven effective for differentiating between biological and non-biological processes on Earth, so it’s premature to draw any conclusions.

The research is published online in the International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences.

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Guest Blogger

MAN SHOOTS 4-INCH NAIL INTO HEART

Pictured above is Dennis Hennis, with a 4-inch nail in his chest.

A New Jersey man has managed to shoot himself in the chest and puncture his heart with a 4-inch long nail while doing some construction work on a neighbor’s roof.

BBC News writes:

A New Jersey man is making a quick recovery after accidentally shooting a 4-inch (10cm) nail into his heart. Dennis Hennis, a 52-year-old self-employed builder, was working on his neighbour’s roof when his nail gun jammed and he tried to clear it.

The nail pierced the right side of his heart and he went into cardiac arrest. His surgeon credited Mr Hennis’ recovery to prompt medical attention and knowing that he should not remove the nail himself.

Mr Hennis told Dr Michael Rosenbloom that it felt like he had won the lottery. “I got a new grandson on my birthday on March 23 and a week later I’m almost dead,” Mr Hennis said. “Now we can celebrate birthdays together.”

He was airlifted to trauma centre an hour away in Camden, New Jersey, and went under immediate surgery. “Imagine there is a nail in the heart and they have to do CPR [cardio-pulmonary resuscitation],” Dr Rosenbloom said. “It turns a little puncture wound into a laceration.”

Mr Hennis expects to be discharged in time to celebrate Easter with his family.

GIANT WHALE-EATING WHALE FOUND WITH TEETH OVER A FOOT LONG

A depiction of a prehistoric whale-eating whale.

This is just one of the many reasons I will not go into any amount of water I can’t see the bottom of.

A giant prehistoric whale that was capable of eating other whales has been discovered by Paleontologists in Peru, with teeth that are over a foot long used to eat whales the size of some of the biggest ones alive today!

Discovery News writes:

The massive skull and jaw of a 13-million-year-old sperm whale has been discovered eroding from the windblown sands of a coastal desert of Peru.

The extinct cousin of the modern sperm whale is the first fossil to rival modern sperm whales in size — although this is a very different beast, say whale evolution experts.

“We could see it from very far,” said paleontologist Olivier Lambert of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, France, who led the team which found the fossil.

The giant 3-meter (10-foot) skull of what’s been dubbed Leviathan melvillei (in honor of the author of “Moby Dick”) was found with teeth in its top and bottom jaws up to 36 centimeters (14 inches) long. The discovery is reported in the July 1 issue of the journal Nature.

MAN INFECTES HIMSELF WITH A COMPUTER VIRUS

A human has transmitted a virus between computers.

Here’s more proof that the future is here; a man has infected himself with a computer virus and transmitted it between two seperate computers using his actual body as the host.

Discovery News writes:

As if humans didn’t have enough viruses to worry about, one British researcher has successfully infected himself with a computer virus.

Mark Gasson, senior research fellow at the University of Reading, was able to infect a tiny, radio frequency identification (RFID) chip with a virus before he placed it under the skin on his hand. He uses that chip to activate his cell phone, as well as open secure doors.

Thanks to the computer chip… instead of him swiping an ID card to enter his building, he just needs to wave his hand to gain entrance. The convenience of not taking out his ID and the safety of his phone come with a price, however.

He served as carrier, and was able to pass the virus on to an external computer. The virus was of Gasson’s own design and was not malicious. But he was able to show that computer viruses can move seamlessly between computers within and outside the body. And theoretically, if a person had several computers in his or her body, a computer virus could spread from one to another, infecting them all.

9 PLANETS DISCOVERED IN A SOLAR SYSTEM JUST LIKE OURS

Screenshot from an animated video of our "twin" solar system, HD 10180.

An amazing discovery has been made that gives us evidence of 9 different planets in a solar sytem that is so similar to ours, it’s been called our ‘twin’!

Scientists and astronomers alike are finding more and more exoplanets and systems that could support life like ours, very literally, daily. Fascinating!

An animation created when the system was thought to only have 7 planets:

Discovery News writes:

In 2010, a star 127 light-years away stunned the world — it had become the largest star system beyond our own, playing host to five, possibly seven, alien worlds. Now, the star (called HD 10180) is back in the headlines; it may actually have nine exoplanets orbiting it.

Interestingly, HD 10180 is a yellow dwarf star very much like the sun, so this discovery has drawn many parallels with our own Solar System. It is a multi-planetary system surrounding a sun-like star. But it is also a very alien place with an assortment of worlds spread over wildly different orbits.

It is believed that one of HD 10180’s exoplanets is small — although astronomers only know the planets’ masses, not their physical size or composition. The smallest world weighs-in at 1.4 times the mass of Earth, making it a “super-Earth.”

CLEAREST PHOTO OF BIGFOOT EVER RELEASED?

Is this the clearest photo of bigfoot ever?

Has the best and clearest photo of bigfoot finally been released?

Are the skeptics finally going to admit the truth?

Why can we only see his back?

Whether you believe in Bigfoot or not, this photo makes you take a moment to think hard about what exactly the creature in this photo could be.

Ghost Theory writes:

A blogger by the name of Melissa Hovy has been maintaining a Bigfoot blog for quite some time now. It wasn’t until recently that the Sasquatch community caught wind that Melissa could be holding the ultimate photo of all ultimate photos depicting the big guy.

The story goes that four years ago Melissa was contacted by someone who claimed to have a clear picture of Bigfoot on a trailcam. The witness sent Mellisa the picture but wouldn’t allow her to publish it….until now that is.

A message released from the blogger herself:

This witness asked for my (Melissa Hovey) help in seeking protection for what he/she claimed was a Bigfoot that had been coming onto his/her property.

The witness broke contact after becoming concerned for his/her privacy and the safety of the animal. He/she was concerned people would discover who he/she is and that he/she would be called, “crazy”. The witness also expressed concern that if his/her identity were discovered the alleged animal would be in danger of being killed…

The photo has been examined…But, rest assured I have no desire to “string this out” any longer than I must – and that is only to make sure the information and the opinions given are published properly.

UFO FILMED FROM AIRPLANE OVER SOUTH KOREA

A UFO as seen out the window of an airplane.

A man flying over Seoul, South Korea got to see something extra-spectacular and seems to have been lucky enough to capture it on film it as well.

Gather News writes:

A classic, saucer-shaped UFO was filmed from the window of an airplane flying over Seoul, South Korea. What is it?

As the passenger uses a video camera to catch the view of the city out the window, a saucer-shaped, white-colored unidentified flying object whizzes by, erratically flying in a crazy path. It dips upward for a second before it disappears from view.

The witness is clearly surprised, speaking a dialect which sounds eastern European. In any language, it’s clear he is trying to call someone else’s attention, but by then it’s too late.