Necrobot Spiders, Loch Ness Monster, Barbie House
Welcome to the first edition of “Daily Weird,” which may or may not end up being quite as daily as I would prefer. For the last 12 years I’ve almost exclusively shared the latest bizarre, absurd, and otherwise weird news headlines on the Cult of Weird Facebook feed and/or Twitter, but the rampant spread of hate and intentionally disseminated misinformation that arose in 2020 onward has made me increasingly more anti-social (media).
So let’s try this, instead.
Worst claw game ever.
Today’s Weird News
- In one of the world’s most remote construction projects, tunnels connecting the Faroe Islands, exists the world’s first undersea roundabout.
- In one of the worst ideas ever: Turning dead spiders into necrobots.
- Medical cannibalism: Eating the dead might sound like fun, but it didn’t cure anything.
- “The Line” will be a 170-km long skyscraper in the desert that will house 9 million people
- Plesiosaur fossils discovered in an ancient riverbed means the existence of the Loch Ness Monster is “plausible.”
- The Internet is calling it the “Barbie House.” I call it perfect. It would make a great Cult of Weird HQ, wouldn’t it?
- But this 1896 Victorian in Goshen, NY is also a strong contender.
- The town of Elmwood, WI experienced a series of bizarre UFO sightings in the 70s, including one case where a sheriff was “zapped” by one, and died mysteriously soon after. This weekend they’re holding the 43rd annual Elmwood UFO Days to commemorate it.
- Watch the trailer for Guillermo Del Toro’s stop-motion Pinocchio.
- The inspiring story of Nephromyces, a reformed parasite that lives in the kidneys of sea squirts.
- More human remains found as water levels continue to recede in Lake Mead
- At this rate we’ll soon be able to visit the crashed B52 without diving.
The Curse of Mokele-Mbembe
Remember this 80s movie about an orphaned baby dinosaur?
The discovery of plesiosaur fossils reminds me of the story of Mokele-mbembe, supposedly real modern-day dinosaurs that native tribes say live in the waters and dense jungles of the Congo. Around 1960, two of these creatures were disrupting the fishing activities of a tribe in the Lake Tele region. The tribe put up a barrier of stakes in hopes of keeping the beasts out of the lake. When one dino still tried to break through into the lake, the tribe attacked it with spears and killed it.
They spent the next several days butchering the giant creature, and then held a victory feast in which they cooked and ate it. However, every member of the tribe who participated in the feast died of food poisoning or other natural causes soon after.
