|OT| Interesting Things That Don't Deserve Their Own Thread - Cool Stories Bro

[Anteater]

Thread we post random shit we find interesting: mysteries, new inventions, news, or things you find fascinating!

A lot of my posts will probably be what I saw on subreddit like TIL, science, history and whatever, so take a look at those if you want to find more interesting things to scroll through: r/todayilearned

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Enormous, shadowy figures in hats and cloaks have haunted the California coast for more than 300 years. What are they?

For hundreds of years, people have looked up at the hazy peaks of California's Santa Lucia Mountains at sunset and seen tall, cloaked figures staring back. Then, within moments, the eerie silhouettes disappear.

"German locals near the Harz Mountains have, for centuries, reported seeing shadowy figures on Brocken peak," Dowd wrote. "In reality, the Brocken spectre … happens when shadows — like those of a hiker — are cast on particularly misty mountain peaks. If the sun is behind the observer, the mist plays with the shadow, making it look huge and menacing."

The spectral figures are usually surrounded by a rainbow-colored halo, produced by sunlight refracting off of water droplets in the fog or clouds, according to the BBC. While it's common in the Harz Mountains, where fogs frequently creep in at low altitudes, you can see the effect on any misty mountainside with the sun at your back and the clouds below you. Perhaps you've seen it yourself from the window of an airplane; cruising between the sun and the clouds, the plane can cast a rainbow-rimmed shadow on the clouds below that looks supernaturally large.

https://www.livescience.com/dark-watchers-california-optical-illusion.html

 

[Panda Pedinte]

The Kuiper Belt's dwarf planet Quaoar hosts an impossible ring

Quaoar’s ring lies outside the Roche limit, an imaginary line beyond which rings aren’t thought to be stable.

www.sciencenews.org

The dwarf planet Quaoar has a ring that is too big for its metaphorical fingers. While all other rings in the solar system lie within or near a mathematically determined distance of their parent bodies, Quaoar’s ring is much farther out.

“For Quaoar, for the ring to be outside this limit is very, very strange,” says astronomer Bruno Morgado of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The finding may force a rethink of the rules governing planetary rings, Morgado and colleagues say in a study published February 8 in Nature.

Just to have an idea, the orange line in the image below is the Roche Limit for Haumea (dwarf planet), Chariklo (asteroid) and Quaoar (dwarf planet). So far the planetary rings are usually near that limit, though in Quaoar case they are far out of than expected.

 

[MegaApple]

Best thread

 

[Anteater]

Always fascinate me that these new discoveries date further and further into the past. Wonder what hippo tartare tastes like.

2.9-million-year-old butchery site reopens case of who made first stone tools - Griffith News

Discovery of stone tools and cut-marked animal bones in Kenya offers window into the dawn of stone technology.

news.griffith.edu.au

Through analysis of the wear patterns on the stone tools and animal bones discovered at Nyayanga, Kenya, the team behind this latest discovery shows that these stone tools were used by early human ancestors to process a wide range of materials and foods, including plants, meat and even bone marrow.

The Oldowan toolkit includes three types of stone tools: hammerstones, cores and flakes. Hammerstones can be used for hitting other rocks to create tools or for pounding other materials. Cores typically have an angular or oval shape, and when struck at an angle with a hammerstone, the core splits off a piece, or flake, that can be used as a cutting or scraping edge or further refined using a hammerstone.

Because fire would not be harnessed by hominins for another 2 million years or so, these stone toolmakers would have eaten everything raw, perhaps pounding the meat into something like a ‘hippo tartare’ to make it easier to chew.

“The assumption among researchers has long been that only the genus Homo, to which humans belong, was capable of making stone tools,” Potts said. “But finding Paranthropus alongside these stone tools opens up a fascinating whodunnit.”

 

[Anteater]

The heck? I was listening to My Way because of Dragon Ball Z Abridged and that Stranger of Paradise trailer, then I learned about this:

The "My Way" killings are a social phenomenon in the Philippines, referring to a number of fatal disputes which arose due to the singing of the song "My Way", popularized by Frank Sinatra,[1] in karaoke bars (more commonly known as "videoke" in the Philippines). A New York Times article estimated the number of killings to be about 12 as of 2022. Between 2002 and 2012, numerous people were killed for singing this song

Explanations for these incidents differ from the song being simply frequently sung among the nation's karaoke bars where violence is common or to perceived aggressive lyrics of the song.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Way_killings

Karaoke Killings: A Bizarre Phenomenon In East Asia

Confrontations in karaoke parlors have culminated in murderous violence in parts of Asia.

www.ibtimes.com

Perhaps the most-prominent string of karaoke-related killings have taken place in The Philippines, where Frank Sinatra's trademark song "My Way" has served as the soundtrack for at least a dozen murders over the past decade. The situation has reached a point where some Filipino karaoke businesses have actually removed “My Way” from the jukebox repertoire.

“I used to like ‘My Way,’ but after all the trouble, I stopped singing it,” he said. “You can get killed.”

The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.”

 

[Anteater]

Tall tale: Study finds ‘mermaid mummy’ largely a molded object

The mermaid dream is dead.

Researchers using high-tech equipment have reached a conclusion concerning a mysterious and creepy “mermaid mummy” long kept at a temple here: It is mostly fake.

They said some real biological parts were found in the mermaid.

For example, the lower body contains bones from perhaps the tail and dorsal fins of a Sciaenidae fish, while the mummy’s jaw was that of a carnivorous fish.

But they found no major bones in the spine or rib cage. And the jaw was the only bone in the head.

The body’s interior consisted mainly of a mold of cloth, paper and cotton.

The head was almost entirely made of cotton, along with plaster and similar materials, they said.

The surface of the upper body was created with thin layers of paper, with puffer fish skin and animal hair glued to it, according to the study.

The researchers tried to conduct a DNA analysis, but no DNA was detected in the mermaid.

More than 10 mermaid mummies have been reported around Japan.

One found in Amami-Oshima island, Kagoshima Prefecture, was confirmed to be an elaborate artifact.

Tall tale: Study finds ‘mermaid mummy’ largely a molded object | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

www.asahi.com

 

[Pixieking]

Gift link so shouldn’t be a paywall…

A catatonic woman awakened after 20 years. Her story may change psychiatry.

Although April’s illness was clinically indistinguishable from schizophrenia, she also had lupus, an underlying and treatable autoimmune condition that was attacking her brain.

If anyone remembers the House TV series… this is basically an episode of that, but real.

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

I don't really understand why this exists like it does.

 

[Pixieking]

I don't really understand why this exists like it does.

Convince relative that it's a great idea. Take out life insurance policy on relative, ensuring you're the sole beneficiary. Relative has bath, slips when they get out, falls and dies. You claim insurance money and sell house claiming you can't live there anymore because of the memories. New buyer takes out insurance policy on relative...