WTF
catdynamics | June 10, 2016Tabby's Star - KIC 8462852 - remains one of the more interesting and mysterious objects in the sky.
There is a good update at "Updates on Boyajian’s Star" - Astrowright's blog and "Bradley Schaefer: Further Thoughts on the Dimming of KIC 8462852" at Centauri Dreams has the latest on the controversy over whether the star has undergone long term fading.
Update: "The Most Mysterious Star in the Galaxy" - another guest blog by Schaefer providing a good overview of the issues.
Ultimately to resolve this more data is needed.
There is a Kickstarter Project - "The most mysterious star in the Galaxy…
catdynamics | October 19, 2015As of this morning we have discovered over 1,500 exoplanets, planets orbiting stars other than the Sun.
In addition to the confirmed discoveries, we have over 3,000 candidate exoplanets, most discovered by the NASA Kepler Mission through transits, where we see the shadow of a planet as it crosses in front of its parent star.
We know, statistically, that most of the candidate planets are real, but a few % are weird misalignments of something else that makes us think there might be a planet there. Filtering those out is hard.
We also see other things, weird and wonderful things...
Little over…
grrlscientist | June 24, 2010tags: Meet Paul, Germany's Prognosticating Octopus, soccer, football, World Cup 2010, fun, offbeat, weird
Paul -- an octopus at the Sea Life public aquarium in Oberhausen, western Germany -- has so far correctly predicted the outcome of each of Germany's World Cup matches. On Tuesday, Paul contemplates Wednesday's match between Germany and Ghana. [larger view]
The World Cup and all the fanfare that surrounds it is truly amazing to experience. But perhaps strangest thing of all is that several zoos and aquariums in Germany have been asking some of their animals to predict the winners to the…
grrlscientist | February 21, 2010tags: Invisible Rope Prank, humor, funny, prank, streaming video
Here's a hilarious prank where two guys pretend they have a rope that they stretch across a road between them in front of oncoming traffic. The reactions of those who have been pranked are quite amusing.
grrlscientist | January 9, 2010tags: How to Wrap a Cat for Christmas, holidays, christmas, funny, weird, silly, cats, pets, streaming video
This silly and amusing video is a little late for christmas, but it's still the holiday season, more or less (especially considering the mountains of snow that people in much of the Northern Hemisphere are dealing with right now), so it's appropriate.
grrlscientist | October 25, 2009tags: Invisible dogs, NYC Life, prank, humor, funny, fucking hilarious, WTF, streaming video
As a NYCer, I can tell you that NYC is filled with weird people, but on some days, the populace is weirder than others. For example, more than 2,000 people walked "invisible dogs" down the streets of Brooklyn on a Sunday afternoon recently. The leashes were on loan from the current owner of 51 Bergen Street, the factory space where the invisible dog toy was invented in the 1970s. Participants of all ages spread out from Red Hook to Brooklyn Heights, very seriously walking their very silly dogs.…
awild | September 23, 2009While in Florida earlier this year I turned over a leaf to find this gruesome scene:
A worker of the Florida Carpenter Ant (Camponotus floridanus) stationed along a leaf vein among a herd of scale insects. Except, without a head.
I honestly don't know what happened to the poor ant. Any ideas?
cwilcox | January 1, 2009I'm often reminded of what Rich Cook said about the nature of the universe. Sure, he wrote about programming, but the principle stands in all fields.
Here are a few perfect examples.
#1. A man has fled the country (or "willingly relocated to south america to help the poor") due to legal issues with his plastic surgery practice. Sure, that sounds normal enough, until you hear the issue: he was turning human fat into biodiesel (which, apparently, is against the law in California - something about medical waste and fueling vehicles). The Beverly Hills doctor, one Craig Alan Bittner, claimed…
cwilcox | December 5, 2008A twelve year old boarder collie mix survived being frozen to the sidewalk for a whole night in Wisconsin. The overnight temperature dropped into the single digits, yet the elderly animal survived. How?
Jiffy, the unfortunate dog, is morbidly obese. "Being insulated as well as he was with the layers of fat he had probably saved the dog's life," said the Humane Society Shelter Manager, Carey Payne, in a news story
The dog's owner said she couldn't get the dog inside herself, and checked on him every few hours to make sure he was ok. The animal care workers poured warm water over the dog's back…
grrlscientist | November 13, 2008tags: humor, funny, WTF, Detective Mittens, streaming video
Meow meow meow meow meow meow meowmeow meow meow -- meow meow?? [3:50].
grrlscientist | October 26, 2008tags: spider eats bird, golden orb spider, chestnut-breasted Mannikin, birds, avian, WTF, wow
Golden Orb Spider eats a chestnut-breasted Mannikin in Australian garden.
Image and story: Daily Mail.
This picture and story is so creepy that it makes my skin crawl to see this at the top of my blog. But it's also very strange -- the stuff of nightmares!! -- so I had to share it with you. If you are an arachnophobe, as I am, this will defintely give you nightmares. But if you are insatiably curious about the natural world, as I am, follow the link for the story and for more gruesome images --…
zooillogix | January 15, 2008Chimpanzee walking bulldogs in some sort of bizarro world (i.e. Japan). We've delivered you some strange Japanese imports in the past, but this raises the bar.