Bizarre

Nightmarish deep-sea footballfish washes up on California beach in rare stranding

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A deep-sea Pacific footballfish found on Moro Beach in Crystal Cove State Park is the second of this species to wash up in recent years, but the reason behind the strandings remains a mystery.

A ghoulish, pitch-black fish with a long stalk on its head recently washed up on a beach in Southern California — the second of its kind to end up onshore there in recent years, Crystal Cove State Park officials announced Oct. 17.

A ghoulish, pitch-black fish with a long stalk on its head recently washed up on a beach in Southern California — the second of its kind to end up onshore there in recent years, Crystal Cove State Park officials announced Oct. 17.

Experts identified the bizarre-looking animal as a female Pacific footballfish (Himantolophus sagamius), a species of anglerfish that lives in the Pacific Ocean at depths of 2,000 to 3,300 feet (600 to 1,000 meters). It follows an earlier stranding in May 2021, when a visitor at the state park discovered another fish of the same species on the shore.

“To see an actual anglerfish intact is very rare and it is unknown how or why these fish ended up onshore,” Crystal Cove State Park officials wrote in a Facebook post. “Their teeth, like pointed shards of glass, are transparent and their large mouth is capable of sucking up and swallowing prey the size of their own body.”

Pacific footballfish are one of more than 300 species of anglerfish living in the deep sea worldwide, according to the California Academy of Sciences. Female anglerfish can grow up to 24 inches (61 centimeters) long — about 10 times as large as some of their male counterparts, which have evolved to latch onto females and act as lifelong parasitic providers of sperm on-tap.

“Only females possess a long stalk on the head with bioluminescent tips used as a lure to entice prey,” park officials wrote in the post. The males of some species merge their bloodstreams with their host’s, “eventually coalescing with the female until nothing is left of their form but their testes for reproduction,” they added.

That is definitely one very Ugly fish.

A seasonal lifeguard discovered the dead anglerfish on Moro Beach close to the lifeguard headquarters, “just in time for Friday the 13th,” the officials wrote. It was later picked up by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for analysis.

The specimen measured about 14 inches (36 cm) from mouth to tail fin, Michelle Horeczko, a senior environmental scientist supervisor with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, told the Los Angeles Times. Only 30 or so specimens of this species have been collected globally, she said, so the discovery will provide valuable information about the life of Pacific footballfish.

After examining the fish, scientists handed it over to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, where the Pacific footballfish discovered in 2021 is also housed, “so that the specimen can be preserved and available for scientific research,” Horeczko said.

While the reason for the stranding remains a mystery, “seeing this strange and fascinating fish is a testament to the curious diversity of marine life lurking below the water’s surface in California’s marine protected areas,” the Facebook post said.

Optical Illusion Causes Plane to Appear Frozen in Sky Over San Francisco

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A puzzling piece of footage that seems to show a plane frozen in mid-air over San Francisco sparked speculation that the wondrous scene was a “glitch in the matrix,” but the odd sight is actually just an optical illusion. The spellbinding video (seen above) reportedly emerged over the weekend after it was posted online by a traveler who gazed out the window of their flight and was stunned by what they saw. The footage subsequently spread like wildfire on social media with people offering all manner of theories as to what was unfolding in the sky over the city.

While the most predominant suggestion was that the footage captured a proverbial “glitch in the matrix,” other imaginative observers quickly pointed the finger at, of course, aliens. However, it turns out that both fantastic theories are incorrect as the cause of the curious sight was merely an optical illusion known as the parallax effect. The phenomenon occurs when an individual observes an object that is traveling at the same relative speed as themselves, which causes it to look stationary.

Convicted Murderer Who Escaped Pennsylvania Prison Climbs Like Spider-Man

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CNN — 

The manhunt continued Wednesday for murderer Danelo Cavalcante, who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison last week by thwarting newly installed razor wire put in place after another inmate briefly broke out a few months ago, authorities said at a Wednesday news conference.

Cavalcante, 34, who was spotted again in the area Tuesday by a resident, got free from Chester County Prison last Thursday by “crab walking” between two walls, pushing his way through razor wire, running across a roof, scaling another fence, and getting through more razor wire, Chester County Prison Acting Warden Howard Holland told reporters.

Surveillance video from the prison shows the inmate in the exercise yard looking through a window in a door then placing his hands on one wall and his feet on another. He shimmies up the opening and out of view.

Incredibly Rare Spotless Giraffe Born at Tennessee Zoo

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An incredibly rare spotless giraffe was recently born at a zoo in Tennessee and the wondrous creature is believed to be the only one of its kind in the world. The remarkable animal was reportedly born in late July at Bright’s Zoo in the city of Limestone. In announcing the peculiar creature’s arrival on Monday, they marveled that “giraffe experts believe she is the only solid-colored reticulated giraffe living anywhere on the planet.” The zoo’s founder, Tony Bright, recalled that the animal’s uniqueness was apparent from the moment of its birth as it clearly sported a coat of brown fur rather than the characteristic pattern of spots seen on nearly every other creature of its kind.

Following the arrival of the surprising-looking animal, zoo director David Bright said they began contacting other facilities “all over the country” to gauge just how unusual the creature might be and the response that they repeatedly received from seasoned professionals was that nobody had seen such a giraffe before. In fact, the only other record of a spotless version of the animal born in captivity occurred at a Japanese zoo in the 1970s. The zoo also performed blood work on the creature to ascertain if there might be some kind of illness that caused her curious condition, but the results indicated that it was perfectly healthy and no different from another giraffe that had been born at the facility a few weeks earlier.

Now standing a whopping six-feet-tall after just a few weeks, the spotless giraffe has seemingly seamlessly adjusted to life within her herd as the zoo indicated that the creature is “thriving.” The circumstances surrounding the animal’s birth are actually rather fortuitous, Tony Bright mused, as “in the wild, they use those spots for camouflage.” so the creature would have faced something of a perilous life had it been born in the wild. The zoo has yet to settle on a name for the animal and have opened up the process to the public by way of a vote on their Facebook page wherein people can choose among the four options of Kipekee, Firyali, Shakiri, and Jamella with the winner being announced on Labor Day.

Eerie Glowing ‘Doorway’ Appears in Sky Over Indian City

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A woman in India captured footage of a curious rectangular shape resembling a glowing doorway that appeared in the sky over a city and no one is quite sure what could have created the eerie anomaly. The strange scene was reportedly filmed this past Sunday evening as Aditi Singh was returning to her residence in the city of Bengaluru. Sharing her video of the odd event on Instagram, she explained that “my friend was dropping me back home” when they noticed something rather unusual above them in the form of a distinctly rectangular shadow-like shape that seemed to glow around its edges.

Marveling that the very weird aerial anomaly did not appear to be “a natural phenomenon,” Singh observed that “the clouds were running against it like there is something levitating in the air.” The bewildered witness also noted that “the moon was in the waxing crescent phase,” which made the considerable degree of illumination surrounding the oddity to be particularly inexplicable. According to Singh, the strange sighting lasted for approximately 90 seconds before the anomaly vanished and “the sky was just filled with clouds.” Left with no explanation for what had appeared in the sky, she ultimately mused that “I have so many questions” and asked if anyone could identify a cause for the rectangular shape.

Singh’s video quickly went viral after it was shared on social media and viewers had all manner of suggestions for the nature of the peculiar anomaly. Some imaginative individuals speculated that it was some kind of doorway or portal that briefly manifested before disappearing. Others theorized that perhaps it was the shadow of a building or a light projection from some event being held in the city. Another plausible possibility put forth by people online is that the anomaly is an optical illusion known as a Brocken spectre.

A Brocken spectre (British English; American spelling: Brocken specter; German: Brockengespenst), also called Brocken bow, mountain spectre, or spectre of the Brocken is the magnified (and apparently enormous) shadow of an observer cast in mid air upon any type of cloud opposite a strong light source. Additionally, if the cloud consists of water droplets backscattered, a bright area called Heiligenschein, and halo-like rings of rainbow coloured light called a glory can be seen around the head or apperature silhouette of the spectre. Typically the spectre appears in sunlight opposite the sun’s direction at the antisolar point.

The phenomenon can appear on any misty mountainside, cloud bank, or be seen from an aircraft, but the frequent fogs and low-altitude accessibility of the Brocken, a peak in the Harz Mountains in Germany, have created a local legend from which the phenomenon draws its name. The Brocken spectre was observed and described by Johann Silberschlag in 1780, and has often been recorded in literature about the region.

Man Accused of Swindling Woman Out of Over $300,000 by Pretending to be God

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In a bizarre story out of Spain, a man is on trial for allegedly convincing an elderly woman to give him over $300,000 by pretending that he was God. The strange case reportedly began back in 2013 when the unnamed suspect called the victim, identified as Esperanza, and informed her that she was speaking to the Supreme Being. While most people would simply hang up the phone, the woman actually thought that it was God on the line as she had previously had a profound experience wherein she believes that she had been made a saint by the Virgin Mary. Esperanza’s tale was apparently so well-known in her community that it led to the call from the faux deity, who sought to take advantage of what Spanish media described as the woman’s “religious mystical delusions.”

Posing as God, the man told Esperanza that her money would be in safer hands if she gave it to him so that he could deposit it in a checking account at the ‘Bank of Heaven.’ By moving her funds into the divine institution, he claimed, she would have “more profitability” which would ultimately allow her to build a home in heaven when the time was right. Sadly, the dubious pitch worked to perfection and, over the next several years, Esperanza delivered envelopes of money to a store owned by the fraudster. In an effort to ensure that no one knew about the ongoing scam, the con artist even went so far as to warn the woman that ‘God’ would kill her children if she ever told them about their heavenly financial arrangement.

However, the sinister swindler’s house of cards came tumbling down when Esperanza ran out of money and began asking her family for loans, which led to them discovering the elaborate ruse that had befallen her. All told, it is believed that the unfortunate woman gave over $300,000 to the proverbial devil in disguise. Now on trial for the cruel scheme, the alleged swindler insists that he is innocent, however prosecutors say that part of the evidence that will be presented against him are recordings of phone calls wherein he posed as God to the unsuspecting Esperanza. If convicted, the man could face up to eight years in prison for the dastardly divine impersonation.

‘I knew it was circling me’: Man attacked by shark was waiting to die, then dolphins saved his life

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NatGeo Sharkfest episode focuses on stories of whales and dolphins saving people from sharks. But are they really trying to protect us?

Martin Richardson was swimming in the Red Sea in Egypt when he was attacked by a mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus). He was bitten approximately five times and was waiting to die when something unusual happened. 

“There was no reason for the shark to stop,” he said in “Saved from a Shark,” a new show from National Geographic. “I had lost approximately 5 pints [2.8 liters] of blood. You only have 8 to 9 [pints, or 4.5 to 5 L] in your body. I was waiting for a feeding frenzy… I knew it was circling me… I turned away and looked at the mountains. I gave up.”

At this moment, a group of dolphins appeared just behind Richardson, and the attack stopped. He was then pulled onto a boat that had been racing to get to him before the shark did and rushed to hospital, where needed more than 300 stitches. “I firmly believe the dolphins saved my life,” he said. 

Do whales and dolphins really protect humans from sharks? “Saved from a Shark” — part of NatGeo’s SharkFest — looks closely at four cases where people were seemingly protected from the predators in the water.”Being saved by another animal is certainly a very romantic notion,” Tom Hird, marine biologist and shark conservationist, said in the program.

But it’s not so clear that’s what’s actually going on in most cases.

Mike Heithaus, professor in the department of biological sciences at Florida International University, said it’s unlikely dolphins were intentionally saving Richardson’s life.

“The dolphins see a big cloud of blood, they know a shark is in the area.” If they had young, they’d want to scare the shark away from the young. “They may not have been trying to save Martin,” he said in the show.

In another case explored in the film, Nan Hauser, director of the Cook Islands Whale Research, revisited the moment in 2017 when a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) she was diving with saved her from a huge tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) that was stalking her. In footage shot during the encounter, Hauser is approached by the whale, pushed and then lifted onto its snout.

“[The whale is] looking at me and I know he’s got something to tell me,” she said in the program. “I do not understand. He wants me to understand. I look down into the deep blue. And I then I see [the tiger shark] right below me.

“I know — and the whale knows — this is a serious situation and I want to get out of the water. Then all of a sudden I was swooped up by the whale… now he’s got me right on the front of his face.”

The footage captured shows the whale engaging in a behavior similar to what it would do to protect a calf, Heithaus said.

Howether, Heithaus said the most unusual case was when a group of lifeguards swimming off the coast of New Zealand were encircled by a group of dolphins. Unbeknownst to the group, a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) was stalking them. “I’m used to having dolphins swimming alongside me, but this was totally different,” Rob Howes, one of the lifeguards in the water, said in the program. 

One of the larger male dolphins charged towards him, and he then realized it was targeting the approaching shark. “Everything built to a big crescendo. Then everything went calm. The shark disappeared very quickly. It was bizarre.”

Heithaus said in most cases, whales and dolphins are probably not protecting humans for altruistic reasons — more likely they are trying to protect themselves or their young. But with the lifeguards in New Zealand, “this is one case where it really seemed like the dolphins were protecting people,” he told Live Science in an email. 

Guy on a Buffalo

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Buffalo Rider is a 1976 American Western film co-directed by John Fabian, George Lauris and Dick Robinson. The films character of Buffalo Jones bears no relation to Charles “Buffalo” Jones who the producers did not know existed until years after.

Buffalo Rider Tells the story of a man named Buffalo Jones with Rick Guinn playing the role of Jones. Jones is depicted as a loner who tames and rides a buffalo and hunts down murderous buffalo hunters.

In 2011, the Austin-based band The Possum Posse created “Guy on a Buffalo”, a narrated song set to clips from the movie Buffalo Rider.