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100 PEOPLE ATTACKED BY PIRANHAS AT BEACH IN BRAZIL!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…

The Huffington Post writes:

Remember that so-bad-it’s-almost-good movie from last summer where crowds of scantily-clad spring breakers were viciously attacked by a swarm of piranhas at lake Victoria?

Fiction quickly turned to a horrifying reality (though not nearly as horrifying as in Piranha 3-D) for around100 beach goers in Brazil last weekendBreitbart reported.

The throngs of bathers were treated at a hospital in Jose De Freitas for bites on their heels and toes from piranhas at a local beach.

Read more at huffingtonpost.com

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Join the Shadow Hour tonight with Larry Flaxman on 11:11 and 11/11/11

The Shadow Hour

The Shadow Hour

10:00 PM CST, Wednesday, 9/21/2011: It’s that time of the week… time to ease into your favorite chair, sit back and relax as we explore the sublime world of the strange, the odd, and the unusual. It’s time once again for… The Shadow Hour.

It’s been a while since we’ve had the chance to talk to Larry Flaxman.  Tonight we’re going to discuss his research into the mysterious significance of the 11:11 time prompt and whether we should come to expect anything when the date hits 11/11/11.

As always, you can listen right here with our blogtalkradio widget! You can listen to past broadcasts at any time, or tune in tonight. (Wednesday, September 21, 2011) at 10pm Central for the live broadcast. Be sure to check out the show notes, too. See you in the shadows…

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PLANET HAS DOUBLE SUNSETS LIKE TATOOINE OF “STAR WARS”!

I remember watching Star Wars for the first time and thinking how beautiful it would be to live on a planet just like Luke Skywalker did with his Aunt and Uncle, cruising the dunes and watching both suns set. Now it looks like that will be a possibility for my grandkids’ grandkids!

 

Discovery News writes:

If you could stand on the surface of Kepler-16b, you’d have two shadows. At sunset, you would see an orange star about the size of the sun and next to it a much fainter red star. As the stars slipped toward the horizon, they would change places in the sky, like partners in a square dance.

You would not need to be Luke Skywalker visiting his home planet of Tatooine in the movie “Star Wars” to watch the twin sunset. The only science fiction in this story is how to make the 200 light-year journey to Kepler-16, a binary star system jointly sharing the Saturn-sized planet, Kepler-16b.

WIDE ANGLE: Age of the Exoplanet

The finding, reported by scientists on NASA’s Kepler planet-hunting space telescope team, adds a new page into Mother Nature’s recipe book for extrasolar planets.

“It’s the first one that circles two stars, so it’s a fundamentally different kind of planet,” lead researcher Laurance Doyle, with the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., told Discovery News.

Read more at news.discovery.com

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BOY LIVING IN THE WILD APPEARS OUT OF NOWHERE!

What a crazy story this kid has! Living in the wild with his father for 5 years, only to have to bury him after an injury killed him while still in the woods. With his father gone he followed the emergency instructions given to him by his father to head to the German capital of Berlin for help.

 

The Gaurdian writes:

He walked out of a German forest, speaking English and knowing only his first name. Police in Berlin are trying to unravel the mystery of a teenager who says he has no idea who he is or where he comes from.

The boy presented himself to the Berlin authorities last week saying all he knew was that his first name was Ray, he was probably 17 years old and he and his father had roamed through the woods for about five years.

“He speaks fluent English and very broken German,” the Berlin police spokesman Michael Maaß told the Guardian. The police have not yet determined if his accent is American, British or that of some other English-speaking nationality.

He told youth workers that his father, whom he called Ryan, had died two weeks ago and he had buried him in a shallow grave covered with stones. The boy then walked north, following instructions his father had given him should anything happen to him.

The pair’s odyssey started after his mother, who he said was named Doreen, died. He says that he and his father never set up home but kept moving, staying in tents and huts in the woods.

It is not clear what they ate or how they survived the often harsh German winters. “He doesn’t show any signs of abuse and he is in good shape physically and psychologically,” Maaß said.

The boy says he cannot remember anything about where he lived before the five-year journey began. “We have nothing more to go on than what he told us. We don’t have any other clues as to his identity,” Maaß said.

Read more at gaurdian.co.uk

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WORLD’S SCARIEST INSECT GETS AN UPGRADE!

I was already terrified of these things, then they go and grow HUGE jaws/fangs out of nowhere? NOT fair.

Live Science writes:

A giant male wasp with jaws that, when open, are longer than its front legs was discovered on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, researchers announced last week.

Researchers called the shiny black wasp, which is about 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) long, the “Komodo dragon” of the wasp family.

“Its jaws are so large that they wrap up either side of the head when closed. When the jaws are open they are actually longer than the male’s front legs,” said Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohard Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis. “I don’t know how it can walk.”

Read more at livescience.com

 

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BIG TOE FOR A THUMB? WHY NOT?

Incredibly awesome surgery skills going to work here! This man lost his thumb and was able to have doctors use his big toe replace it. I mean, they do look a lot alike to begin with so that’s a plus. I wish this man good luck and a speedy recovery!

BBC News writes:

James Byrne, 29, from Fishponds severed the thumb on his left hand last December while sawing through wood. After an attempt to re-attach his damaged thumb failed, plastic surgeons at Frenchay Hospital transplanted his left big toe to his hand.

Surgeon Umraz Khan said: “The loss of the toe is not as disabling as losing a thumb, so the loss outweighs the gain.”

Mr Byrne said: “Mr Khan re-attached my thumb but it had been badly damaged and although we tried everything, including leeches, to get the blood flowing again it didn’t take.

“Mr Khan said to me ‘You will have a thumb even if I have to take your toe’. I thought he was joking, but he was serious and nine months later here it is. The aesthetics of it don’t bother me, “I am just happy that it works, my work as a paver would have been destroyed without the use of my hand because I couldn’t pick up a brick without a thumb but now I hope I can be back at work in a few months.”

Read more at bbc.co.uk

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BILLBOARD USES LIVE BACTERIA TO PROMOTE MOVIE!

This was a pretty genius idea, using live bacteria and mold to slowly form the name of the movie, execution is fantastic as well!

The Montreal Gazette writes:

Two billboards made from live bacteria mounted in an abandoned storefront window in downtown Toronto are giving a whole new meaning to the term “viral marketing.”

A team of scientists created the one-of-a-kind advertisements to promote director Steven Soderbergh’s film Contagion, in theatres Sept. 9, starring Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow.

The living billboards, sure to leave germaphobes itching for hand sanitizer, were the brainchild of Mark Biernacki and Steph Mackie, the creative director duo of Lowe Roche advertising agency in Toronto.

“We wanted something that would have visual impact,” explained Mackie.

Building on the film’s plot, which follows the spread of a fast-moving and lethal airborne virus that kills within mere days, Biernacki and Mackie teamed up with U.K.-based CURB Media to transform their idea into a microbe-infused reality.

Read more at montrealgazette.com

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PIG BORN WITH 2 WORKING SNOUTS!

Incredible! This little guy has 2 working snouts with teeth and all and is actually healthy. Glad to hear this little dude is making it because, as we know all to well here at The Museum Of The Weird where we have a number of animal displays, most born with deformities don’t last long.

The Daily Mail writes:

Meet Babe, the pig who was born with not one but two snouts. And while it might sound like a joke, it’s no laughing matter.

The two-month-old – part of a litter born on a farm in Deshengtang, Jilin province, northern China – can use both his mouths to eat and appears otherwise normal, say his owners.

Farmer Li Zhenjun and his wife Yu Wanfen named the piglet Xiaobao – or ‘Babe’ in English – after the movie about an extraordinary talking pig.

Babe being held by his owner, Yu Wanfen.

Read more at dailymail.co.uk

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GIGANTIC CROCODILE CAUGHT ALIVE!

Holy cow! That entire village could fit inside this thing? Glad they were able to get it out of the waters around their village before anything serious happened.

 

Yahoo News writes:

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Villagers and veteran hunters have captured a one-ton saltwater crocodile which they plan to make the star of a planned ecotourism park in a southern Philippine town, an official said Monday.

Mayor Edwin Cox Elorde said dozens of villagers and experts ensnared the 21-foot (6.4-meter) male crocodile along a creek in Bunawan township in Agusan del Sur province after a three-week hunt. It could be one of the largest crocodiles to be captured alive in recent years, he said, quoting local crocodile experts.

Elorde said the crocodile killed a water buffalo in an attack witnessed by villagers last month and was also suspected of having attacked a fisherman who went missing in July.

He said he sought the help of experts at a crocodile farm in western Palawan province.

“We were nervous but it’s our duty to deal with a threat to the villagers,” Elorde told The Associated Press by telephone. “When I finally stood before it, I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

After initial sightings at a creek, the hunters set four traps, which the crocodile destroyed. They then used sturdier traps using steel cables, one of which finally caught the enormous reptile late Saturday, he said.

Read more at news.yahoo.com

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“ALIEN PIG” BORN JUST AFTER UFO SIGHTING!

Now that’s a face only a mother could love! But, who’s the father? Is it another pig or is daddy an alien? This is definitely weird considering the UFO sighting was THE VERY SAME EVENING IT WAS BORN! This baby pig looks pretty similar to the cyclops-baby pig we have on display here at the Museum Of The Weird.

Come check it out!

Metro Online writes:

Residents of the South American village have decided that the pig’s odd human-shaped head is the doing of visitors from outer space, after strange bright lights were spotted hovering in the sky on the night of its birth.

The pig’s head looks similar to that of a human (CEN)

The poor pig, which is one of a litter of 11, has been described as looking like a cross between a human and something from the Alien movies.

Farmer Laureano Escobar Arias said: ‘I was shocked – it was a really terrifying experience.

‘It looked like some kind of alien creature.’

Read more at metro.co.uk