Science & Technology – Page 17 – Museum of the Weird

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Guest Blogger

MAN HAS NAIL REMOVED FROM BRAIN!

The actual x-ray photo of Dante Autullo's skull with the nail dead center in his brain.

With a picture like this, you would imagine quite a bit of damage happening to this person’s brain but this crazy-lucky guy had no problems whatsoever!

The Telegraph writes:

Dante Autullo thought his doctors were joking, and that he had merely cut himself with a nail gun while building a shed. But they assured him that the X-ray was real: a nail was lodged in the middle of his brain.

Mr Autullo, from Chicago, was recovering on Friday after undergoing surgery at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where doctors removed the 3.75-inch (7.62cm) nail, according to agency reports.

The nail had come within millimeters of the part of the brain that controls motor function.

“When they brought in the picture, I said to the doctor, ‘Is this a joke? Did you get that out of the doctors joke file?'” the 32-year-old recalled. “The doctor said, ‘No man, that’s in your head.'”

FROG SMALLER THAN A DIME!

This recent discovery changes a lot in the science world. Not only is this the world’s smallest frog, but is also now the world’s smallest invertebrate, a position previously held by fish.

BBC News writes:

A frog species that appears to be the world’s smallest has been discovered in Papua New Guinea by a US-based team.

At 7mm (0.27 inches) long, Paedophryne amauensis may be the world’s smallest vertebrate – the group that includes mammals, fish, birds and amphibians.

The researchers also found a slightly larger relative, Paedophryne swiftorum.

Presenting the new species in PLoS One journal, they suggest the frogs’ tiny scale is linked to their habitat, in leaf litter on the forest floor.

Finding the frogs was not an easy assignment.

They are well camouflaged among leaves on the forest floor, and have evolved calls resembling those of insects, making them hard to spot.

“The New Guinea forests are incredibly loud at night; and we were trying to record frog calls in the forest, and we were curious as to what these other sounds were,” said research leader Chris Austin from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, US.

“So we triangulated to where these calls were coming from, and looked through the leaf litter. It was night, these things are incredibly small; so what we did after several frustrating attempts was to grab a whole handful of leaf litter and throw it inside a clear plastic bag.”

“When we did so, we saw these incredibly tiny frogs hopping around,” he told BBC News.

Once again, a new discovery in this world of ours has changed science and they way we think about plants forever. Newly discovered plants of the Philcoxia genus are the first ever found to actually feed on animal life below the surface of the earth.

Discovery News writes:

The Brazilian savannah is home to a subterranean little shop of horrors for tiny worms.

Plants of the Philcoxia genus aren’t as physically impressive (or musically talented) as Audrey 2, the man-eating plant of stage and screen, but can be just as deadly to nematodes, or roundworms.

The three species recently studied, P. bahiensis, P. minensis and P. goiasensis, are the first plants found to feed on animals underground. The plants have sticky subterranean leaves which trap nematodes as they crawl through the nutrient-poor white sand of the Brazilian cerrado, a vast tropical grassland.

NEW MONKEY DISCOVERED W/ HUMAN-LIKE FACE

One of the only known photos of the Snub-Nosed Monkey alive in Myanmar.

New discoveries are always exciting and tell us a lot about our world, but this one in-particular is especially interesting due to the fact that it’s a monkey that looks an awful lot like a human being!

Another of the only known photos of this newly discovered monkey alive.

Although this is a new discovery to the world, it’s definitely not anything new to the locals of this area, who seem to have been hunting it for food for quite some time.

A recent photo of a Snub-Nosed Monkey that was hunted by locals for food.

National Geographic writes:

A new monkey species inMyanmar is so snub-nosed that rainfall is said to makes it sneeze—but that’s apparently the least of problems.

The only scientifically observed specimen (pictured above) had been killed by local hunters the time researchers found it—and was eaten soon after. But local demand for monkey meat is only one reason the new species is already considered endangered.

Scientists first learned of “Snubby”—as they nicknamed the species—from hunters in the remote, mountainous Kachin state (map) in early 2010, according to the U.K.-based conservation group Flora & Fauna International (FFI), which announced the discovery Wednesday.

Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Guest Blogger

MYSTERIOUS LIGHTS OVER ITALY

With the a fresh new year comes a fresh new crop of UFO sightings and we love it! What a better way to start good ol’ 2012, the year we’ve all been waiting for, than with a whole bunch of, possibly extraterrestrial, activity.

Italy has a good start on the rest of the world with activity with this most recent sighting that has two separate vehicles zooming around on film in day light.

http://youtu.be/nn6CNUEYjs0

UFO News writes:

In the latest UFO news, a video was taken of strange lights over Mt. Bisbino, Italy on January 7, 2012. What are they?

What makes this video unique is the time of day, just before sunset. That means the sky is bright enough to make the unidentified flying objects more visible. And more chilling.

Although the videographer fiddles with the focus a bit too much, it’s readily obvious that the multiple objects are not moving like any known aircraft. But it’s how they behave aerodynamically which is the most confounding.

In the background of the cloudless sky there is a puff of vapor, behind from which at least two UFOs emerge and fly crazily about. As the video goes in and out of focus, the objects split up and one disappears suddenly. The other then seems to split in two, with four lights shining brightly.

Then, just as instantly as they appeared, the objects disappear from sight. Did they go back inside the cloud? It’s a really weird sight.

EVOLUTION IN ACTION; FIRST HYRBRID SHARK EVER!

This hybrid has both Common and Australian black tip shark DNA.

This is pretty darn fascinating! Here’s life showing us how it adapts and evolves no matter what the conditions may be. In this case, nature has “created” a shark that usually lives in warmer waters but, through mating with genetic relatives, is now able to expand its’ range to be able to swim and hunt in cooler waters.

Discovery News writes:

Scientists said on Tuesday that they had discovered the world’s first hybrid sharks in Australian waters, a potential sign the predators were adapting to cope with climate change.

The mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was an unprecedented discovery with implications for the entire shark world, said lead researcher Jess Morgan.

“It’s very surprising because no one’s ever seen shark hybrids before, this is not a common occurrence by any stretch of the imagination,” Morgan, from the University of Queensland, said.

“This is evolution in action.”

“YETI” FINGER DEBUNKED

The "Yeti" finger that was brought back from a monastery hidden in the mountains of Nepal.

Well, we here at The Museum of the Weird were certainly excited about this suposed “Yeti” finger that was to be tested and were hoping for final proof of something that we all believe to be very real.

The hand, the finger tested was removed from, along with a scalp of unknown origin.

Unfortunately, science was not on our side this time and debunked what was looking to be a very promising path to proof of the Nepalese “Yeti” or, Abominable Snowman.

Cryptomundo writes:

The Pangboche Yeti finger was rediscovered while on display at London’s Royal College of Surgeons. The late Dr. William Charles Osman Hill, a consultant to the Tom Slick expeditions, bequeathed it to the Hunterian Museum, which is a division of the Royal College of Surgeons.

The alleged Yeti finger from the Pangboche hand was found by the UK’s Daily Mail reporter Matthew Hill, several months ago and has undergone DNA testing. This certainly has been a year of surprises coming forth from the Tom Slick expeditions of the late 1950s.

Today, on a BBC program, the results of a new DNA test were broadcast. The result of the DNA analysis were announced on a program entitled “Yeti Finger” on BBC Radio 4 on December 27, 2011, at 11 am local time.

For the detailed results and MUCH more info and even videos from the original expedition to Nepal in the 50s, head on over to cryptomundo.com

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Guest Blogger

FAMILY GOT A GIANT SNAKE FOR CHRISTMAS!

While the rest of the neighborhood celebrated Christmas days with unwrapping presents and eating warm cookies from the oven with a glass of milk, this family didn’t quite know what to make of this extra scary gift Santa dropped off this year on Christmas day.

“What gift would that be?” you ask?

Well, a giant burmese python in the pool of course!

The Huffington Post writes:

On Christmas, one South Florida family encountered an unwelcomed guest in their pool and it wasn’t a jolly guy with a big white beard.

Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue captured a 13-foot Burmese python in the swimming hole of one Palmetto Bay home. Visit NBCMiami for the full story.

Burmese pythons are classic headline-makers in South Florida. In 2005, one exploded after trying to eat a six-foot alligator whole. And last October, aBurmese python became a celebrity for having a whole 76-pound deer in its belly.

But those two serpentine incidents occurred out in the Everglades. Finding a ravenous constrictor snake in a suburban pool is a different story.

BRAZILIAN CHILD BORN W/ TWO HEADS!

A Brazilian mother expecting twins, birthed a single body with 2 heads instead.

This definitely does not happen everyday, and surely gave the mother, who was told by doctors to expect twins, a very big surprise.

It’s unfortunate when anything is born into this world with birth defects and even sadder when it’s a human child. It’s not uncommon for them to have shortened life-spans due to the many medical complications that are associated with birth defects but, in this instance, it seems life has given these little ones pretty good odds of making it due to them both having full sets of functioning organs.

If you ever get the chance, come on down to visit us on 6th street in downtown Austin, Tx and check out our collection of animals that have been born with all kinds of different mutations, from a one-headed lamb with two bodies to a piglet born with one large eye like a cyclops and a nose that protrudes from its forehead like a alien antenna!

The Huffington Post writes:

One mother learned her baby had two heads just moments before giving birth via Cesarean section in northern Brazil Monday morning.

Doctors say the babies, which have two heads and share one body, are conjoined twins with functioning organs.

The mother did not receive ultrasound scans throughout her pregnancy, but later told doctors she was initially told she was expecting twins, the Daily Mail reports.

The babies each have their own spines but share one heart, liver, pelvis and pair of lungs. She named the boys Jesus and Emanuel.

MILITARY CAUGHT TRANSPORTING UFO!

This image of the ufo in question was captured by a passing vehicle while it traveled through the usually, quiet Kansas road.

What a site this must have been!

Imagine driving to work just like any other day, maybe running a little bit behind, thinking to yourself “Oh man, I’m totally gonna be late for… wait, what is that? Is that a UFO on the back of that truck? In Kansas?”

I bet this town was quite the flurry of activity and chatter trying to figure what just drove through their homely little town.

Not to spoil the fun I’m having here but, it turns out it was just a new kind of American military drone being transported to a nearby base

… so they say.

UFO or drone? Either way it looks rather impressive and deadly.

The Huffington Post writes:

What do you call a flying saucer that isn’t flying?

That’s what residents of Cowley County, Kan. are asking themselves after a mysterious 32-foot-long shrouded object that closely resembled sci-fi depictions of UFOs rolled down US 77 on a flatbed truck.

“There was this funny sphere that went through on this big trailer and my first thought was, ‘That looks like a UFO’,” Kammi Root told ABC-7.

The UFO — in this case an unidentified freight object — was so big that police had to remove signs so it could turn a corner, Sheriff Don Read told the station.

“They told us that it was an aircraft and that they had explored other ways to transport it but this was the best way for them to do it and they asked us not to say a whole lot about it,” Read said.

Category: Science & Technology

MAN HAS NAIL REMOVED FROM BRAIN!

FROG SMALLER THAN A DIME!

CARNIVOROUS PLANT EATS WORMS!

NEW MONKEY DISCOVERED W/ HUMAN-LIKE FACE

MYSTERIOUS LIGHTS OVER ITALY

EVOLUTION IN ACTION; FIRST HYRBRID SHARK EVER!

“YETI” FINGER DEBUNKED

FAMILY GOT A GIANT SNAKE FOR CHRISTMAS!

BRAZILIAN CHILD BORN W/ TWO HEADS!

MILITARY CAUGHT TRANSPORTING UFO!