Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Random Weirdness

Do you believe that these guys have Bigfoot in a freezer? As Tam says: "The find of an Appalachian Bigfoot is especially amazing, since the critter has to be stealthy, living in a neck of the woods that has had sports stadiums and outlet malls since neolithic times." I mean, I love cryptzoology as well as anyone, but an old fur coat, some guts from a roadkill, and 'possum DNA do not an anthropoid make.

(Update: it is a frozen gorilla suit. Best line: ""Once he perpetrated a fraud, that goes into his credibility and integrity," Turner said. "He has violated the duty of a police officer." ")

World's smallest snake found.

Seriously weird Japanese drinks. Anyone up for "Placenta 400,000"?

Stingray at Atomic Nerds makes a case for nukes IN your back yard.

Is Yao Ming the product of Chinese eugenics, selected for height?

Julia Child was a spy, (as were Jack Hemingway, Kermit Roosevelt, and baseball player Moe Berg). This has been generally known but just confirmed now.

Doctor Hypercube has a post up examining the steampunk esthetic. A good quote, warning against too- perfect utopias: ""The problem with the future is that there are people in it - a fact that I think we’re realizing."

Scientists are studying antibodies from nonagenarian survivors of the 1918 flu.

And in that vein, here is a fascinating tattoo of viruses escaping form Pandora's box, on the shoulder of an immunologist.I'd bet an immunologist could recognize them. What do you think, Nate, LabRat, Stingray?

Up soon: successful mushrooming and maybe some reviews..

7 comments:

LabRat said...

I'd bet the "loopy" viruses are filoviruses, the family Ebola and Marburg belong to- they look kind of distinctive (and varied) under a microscope. I think the spiky balls are HIV. The jelly beans... don't ring a bell.

As an idea? Awesome.

Anonymous said...

I was more taken with the execution. Someone's got a damn fine skin artist there. On periodic (pardon the pun) trips through the Science Tattoo Emporium linked at yon article, it's always amazing the wild variance in tattoo quality. Almost every concept there is cool as all get out, but you gotta wonder if some of our fellow inked geeks did any research outside their field, y'know, perhaps to find an artist with a concept of things like uniform line thickness, or in a couple cases, even just plain a straight line.

Word verification: twptrmem - one of the unidentified viruses in the tattoo.

Julie Zickefoose said...

If THAT's a dead Bigfoot, I will eat its guts. The theatrically closed eyes are a good touch. Nice try, Goobers.

Isaac said...

Sometimes I miss Japan...but only sometimes. Bilk? Placenta? DRINKABLE CHEESE? Kekko desu (no thanks).

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry, but I cannot agree that this most recent and WAY overpublicized Bigfoot hoax is a "nice try"--take it from someone who, as an imaginative and mischievous teenager, perpetrated quite a few Sasquatch sightings and tracks--including, coincidentally, in North Georgia! But this was many years ago...Anyway, if you are going to fake Bigfoot, you NEVER have a body or other evidence that, OF COURSE, will be exposed as fake eventually! I expect this body will get "stolen" or "misplaced" as they all eventually do! One had best just settle for a quick sighting, and leave a few monstrous tracks--let the human imagination do the rest(and hope you don't get SHOT in the process! Bigfoot hoaxing is a DANGEROUS sport!). I often got feedback from my victims on how I(a skinny teenager at the time in a baggy gorilla suit I made myself) was TEN feet tall and musta weighed 1000lbs! This most recent fake was a poor effort at best--really dissapointing this day and age with much better materials at the hoaxers' disposal.....

Peculiar said...

Steve, the Julia Child spy link goes to the Yao Ming article.

Steve Bodio said...

P-- fixed!