December 2011 – Page 2 – Museum of the Weird

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Guest Blogger

RARE BRIGHT BLUE LOBSTER SAVED FROM DINNER

This beautiful blue lobster was born with a genetic mutation that turned him a bright, electric-blue rather than the dark, midnight-blue that just about all the other “blue” lobsters are born as. One fisherman just couldn’t let the little guy make it to somone’s dinner table so he scooped him up and gave him to a local aquarium for the world to see, how nice!

The Daily Mail writes:

An incredible electric-blue lobster has been saved from the dinner table after it was spotted at a fish market and rehomed.

The striking crustacean was found by stunned fishermen off the east coast of Scotland and displayed for sale at a fish market in London.

However, fishmonger Rex Goldsmith thought the stunning lobster was too nice to eat and bought it before handing it over to researchers at the Natural History Museum.

Scientists at the museum believe the European lobster, traditionally a much darker shade of blue, hatched out with the unusual colour due to a rare genetic variant.

RUSSIAN MAN FOUND WITH 29 CORPSES IN APARTMENT

The 45 year-old man accused of robbing graves for bodies.

This is weird, really weird.

A man from Russia has been arrested for robbing graves and taking the corpses home to dress them up as dolls and pose them around the house.

One of the mummified bodies dressed as a doll and posed as if sitting on a couch.

Just plain creepy.

CNN writes:

Moscow (CNN) — A historian has been arrested in central Russia after police found the corpses of 29 women, dressed as dolls, in his apartment, authorities said this week.

The 45-year-old man, who police did not identify, has been charged with desecrating bodies and graves, officials said.

Video released by police showed an eerie collection of what looks like life-sized dolls, outfitted in shabby dresses and headscarves, their hands and faces wrapped in fabric. Authorities say the man also stole clothes from the graves when he took the bodies.

Russian Interior Ministry spokesman Gen. Valery Gribakin told CNN police couldn’t figure out for a long time who was behind the “numerous blasphemous acts against the graves and the dead bodies” at several cemeteries in and around Nizhny Novgorod, about 250 miles east of Moscow.

JOIN US FOR A SCREENING OF THE DICKENS’ CLASSIC, A CHRISTMAS CAROL!

A Christmas Carol

6:00pm: Friday, December 16th. The Museum of the Weird is proud to present a special holiday installment of the Weird Theatre SpookShow, featuring the 1951 version of Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol, starring Alastair Sim. Admission is $5.00, and includes entry into the Museum of the Weird. Tickets can be purchased in advance at museumoftheweird.com, or call 512-476-5493.

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Guest Blogger

JOIN US FOR AN EVENING OF CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES!

FREE EVENT! Come join us this Thursday, December 15th, for an evening of Christmas Ghost Stories!

Thursday, December 15th
8:00pm
The Museum of the Weird presents
An Evening of Christmas Ghost Stories
with your host Richard Whittaker

Come warm your bones with some hot chocolate and egg nog as we gather for an age-old Christmas tradition– listening to spooky tales of days of yore! Featuring two terrifying tales by British master of the macabre, M.R. James, as read by resident Englishman Richard Whittaker.

The event is FREE and includes free admission to the Museum of the Weird! Seating is extremely limited, so even though it is free, we recommend making reservations ahead of time by calling 512-476-5493.

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Guest Blogger

WHO WANTS A WOOLY MAMMOTH?!

With the long strides in medical and scientific research and discoveries that are happening more and more often it looks like we have a whole lot of really cool and, once thought impossible, things coming our way.

One of recent interest and, one I find absolutely fascinating, is the ability to clone animals, which has been proven possible many times over but, what about the animals that lived on earth thousands of years ago?

Seems like we’re in luck.

CBS News writes:

(Livescience.com) Woolly mammoths — shaggy, long-extinct relatives of modern elephants — could be easier to clone than one might think, researchers say.

Still, even if any such efforts succeed, they might take decades to accomplish, not the five years in which scientists from Russia and Japan reportedly have said they can achieve it.

Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) wandered the planet for more than a million years, ranging from Europe to Asia to North America. Nearly all of these giants vanished from Siberia by about 10,000 years ago, although dwarf mammoths survived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until 3,700 years ago.

Scientists regularly conduct research on the DNA of these shaggy giants, extracting it from tusks, bone and teeth. With all this genetic material on hand, there lies the distinct possibility mammoths might be cloned one day.

Although some sources say the cloning of a wooly mammoth will happen soon, possibly within 5 years,others, such as CBS News, think it may take just a bit longer than that.

What I do know is that, if they can clone a mammoth, they can probably make a tiny version of one as well, right? Now, just try and convince me that a Mini-Mammoth would not be the greatest pet ever.

FBI SET TO CLOSE D.B. COOPER CASE AFTER 40 YEARS

Forty years after a man in a suit commandeered a 727 jet and parachuted into the night carrying $200,000, federal investigators may be close to cracking the only unsolved airplane hijacking in U.S. history.

The FBI could soon solve the mystery of DB Cooper, the man sought by authorities since the 1971 hijacking of a Northwest Orient Airlines flight from Portland to Seattle, according to a witness who has been described by the agency as credible,NWCN reports.

Investigators are currently attempting to link fingerprints left behind on the airplane with fingerprints obtained from the toothbrush of a man known as LD Cooper, the uncle of a tipster who contacted authorities with suspicions about her relative earlier this year.

Marla Cooper says her uncle was injured when he arrived at her family’s home in Sisters, Ore. the day after the hijacking, but he blamed his wounds on a car crash.

“I knew he did it, it wasn’t speculation, I was there when he pulled into the driveway,” Marla Cooper told the news station.

LD Cooper died in 1999.

The hijacker bought his ticket under the alias “Dan Cooper,” but news reports misidentified his name as DB Cooper.

The FBI won’t comment on the specifics of the investigation, but Marla Cooper says a lead investigator informed her that the case was winding down.

“Regardless of the findings of the fingerprints, he told me the case was closing because they were certain my uncle did it,” she said, according to told the news station.

The agency recently confirmed that it has started conducting forensic tests on evidence including partial fingerprints that could be linked to the hijacking.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/05/db-cooper-case-solved_n_1129511.html

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Guest Blogger

NASA PHOTO REVEALS “CLOAKED” ALIEN SHIP

Large photo of the Coronal Mass Ejection from the sun in front of Mercury. No UFO yet..

Did NASA finally release proof of alien life, on accident?

According to some sources and commentors on various blogs, that’s the case after NASA released a series of photos and video of a coronal mass ejection from the sun that seems to have captured a “cloaked” space ship becoming visible for just a moment.

Is the cylindrical object to the right of the CME and Mercury an alien spaceship revealed?

The Huffington Post writes:

A NASA spacecraft has captured the image of a huge “cloaked” alien ship near the planet Mercury. Unless, of course, it didn’t.

On Dec. 1, NASA’s Heliospheric Imager-1 telescopephotographed a huge coronal mass ejection (CME) streaming from the sun.

But ever-observant, keen-eyed ET hunters claim that the short video also reveals a previously hidden or cloaked giant spaceship.

THE SHADOW HOUR – REVEREND MARK – PARANORMAL COUNSELOR

10:00 PM CST, Wednesday, 12/7/2011: It’s that time of the week… time to ease into your favorite chair, sit back and relax as we explore the sublime world of the strange, the odd, and the unusual. It’s time once again for… The Shadow Hour.

Reverend Mark Manly is different from many of the paranormal investigators that we’ve spoken with in the past on The Shadow Hour. He is an ordained minister with a Doctorate degree in philosophy and a secondary degree in psychology. He is also a certified grief counselor. What would lead a man such as this into the world of the paranormal? He’ll explain what drew him to this path and how his spiritual perspective affects how he deals with what some would label “the supernatural.”

We’ll also talk about how his experience has led him into some new activities as a public speaker and Master of Ceremonies for events.

Listen here at the Museum of the Weird site using the player on this page. You can also see the show notes.

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Guest Blogger

WORLD’S MOST ADVANCED ROBOT!

Honda has upgraded THE most advanced robot in the world but luckily, for us living in fear of the day the droids take over, this guy’s most advanced move is pouring some juice. Looks like the world of “I, Robot” is just a little further down the line so, have no fear, we’re safe for another day.

This guy is still pretty fancy though. Have a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zul8ACjZI18&feature=related

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Guest Blogger

ARK OF THE COVENANT FINALLY REVEALED?

It seems as though one of the most important relics in human history could possibly be shown to the public!

Check back here for details as they develop!

The Daily Mail writes:

A very British problem of a leaky church roof could be about to give the world the chance to glimpse the legendary Ark of the Covenant.

That’s because the claimed home of the iconic relic – a small chapel in Ethiopia – has sprung a leak and so the Ark could now be on the move.

The Ark – which The Bible says holds God’s Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai – is said to have been kept in Aksum, in the Chapel of the Tablet, adjacent to St Mary of Zion Church, since the 1960s.

According to the Old Testament, it was first kept in the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem for centuries until a Babylonian invasion in the 6th century BC.

Since then it’s been the goal of many adventurers and archaeologists to find it. Most-famously, but also fictitiously, Indiana Jones was shown in the 1981 Steven Spielberg film Raiders of the Lost Ark.

There has also been a long-running claim from the Orthodox Christians of Ethiopia that they have had the Ark for centuries, and since the 1960s it has apparently been kept in the chapel.