News of the Weird

An understandable mistake

A reply to a question in Notes & Queries yesterday recommended purchasing lion and tiger urine from Chester Zoo to stop neighbourhood cats from urinating in a vegetable patch (G2, page 17). Chester Zoo would like to forestall requests for its big cats’ urine: it asks us to make clear that it does not in fact sell either tiger or lion urine. Many years ago the zoo sold elephant dung, but it no longer does.

(via Regret the Error)

History| News of the Weird| Technology

Aliens, astronomers, or super-intelligent aardvarks?

You decide. Whatever the case, it’s kind of amazing.

(via Ectoplasmosis)

News of the Weird

Wait, what?

News of the Weird

For the record

Cryptozoology| News of the Weird

On elusiveness, and the possibilities of cryptids

DNR spokesman Hoy Murphy says Casell has a permit for the tiger. And Murphy notes this isn’t the first time Casell’s dealt with an escape: a 400-pound Asian brown bear got loose in May 2006 and hasn’t been seen since.

(Herald Dispatch [1 Dec 2008], via Cryptomundo)

News of the Weird| Science

Scientific understatement of 2008

Quote:

“One might be able to envision potential applications ranging from medical interventions to use in video gaming or the creation of artificial memories along the lines of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in ‘Total Recall.’ Imagine taking a vacation without actually going anywhere?

“Obviously, we need to conduct further research and development…”

(via io9, via EurekAlert: “Ultrasound shown to exert remote control of brain circuits” [29 Oct 2008])

Etcetera| News of the Weird| Technology

Robots of the future, break out of your cells

Say what you will of Lockheed-Martin’s take on Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles-as-documentary; this proof-of-concept (if that’s the right phrasing) test video is eerily captivating.

(References: http://www.mda.mil/mdalink/html/mdalink.html, http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/12/killing_robot_b.html, http://www.thirdeyeconcept.com/news/index.php?page=336)

News of the Weird

Shocking!

Criggo is my new favorite frivolous blog indulgence.