Paul Seaburn March 8, 2022

Mysterious News Briefly — March 8, 2022

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have developed an AI pig sound translator which turns oinks, snuffles, grunts and squeals into emotions to help farmers automatically monitor animal wellbeing. It all sounds like fun until that fateful day when rancher hears a pig say, “We read ‘Animal Farm’.”

A DIY-er in Wales found a key inside a broken mirror that fit a mystery box inside a wall marked with the words “peidiwch ar ryddhau” – which in Welsh means “do not release” – so naturally he opened it and found a small pendant necklace, a burned piece of a Ouija board, a lock of hair and a second key. The reply from “Ask This Old House” was “Too late, dude – you’re screwed.”

NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover seems to be getting around fine despite photographs showing a medium-sized rock that’s been stuck in one of its six wheels for weeks. Does this prove Perseverance is rock-tolerant or that someone forgot to pack a jack?

A study by the Yale School of Management and the University of Toronto found that women can get away with telling bad jokes that get no laughs more often than men, most likely because men are under more pressure to tell funny jokes and are given a hard time when their gags fall flat. You already know the joke is going to be bad if it opens with, “A nun, a nun and a nun walk into a bar …”

An archeological expedition in Qatar found a 6500-year-old pearl bead dating back to 4600 BCE, making it the oldest pearl bead ever found. When asked how much it was worth, the finders clammed up.

A woman in England watching TV alone photographed a reflection on the screen which appeared to show a person or shadow or ghost sitting next to her on the couch – an apparition she claimed her dog barked at. Or was the dog begging her to not fast-forward through the dog food commercials?

In a magazine interview, popular TV scientists Brian Cox says humans are alone in the Milky Way because it took 3.8 billion years to go from the origin of life on Earth to a civilization, which is a third of the age of the universe, so the chances are just too low for any other life to form at the same time. Do aliens feel the same when they pick up the brain signals of Brian Cox?

A hiker traipsing near Montreat, North Carolina, posted a photograph of what he claims is a Bigfoot footprint with visible toes in mud, but a majority of commenters think it’s just two human boot prints made by a person sliding in the mud. Are they implying Bigfoot doesn’t like to slide in the mud too?

Researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University were able to make a female mouse give birth to a baby mouse that grew from an unfertilized egg edited using CRISPR – making this the first non-biblical virgin birth in mammals. For the first time in decades, visitors to Disneyland report Mickey is frowning.

The Entomological Society of America voted unanimously voted to give the species Lymantria dispar a new name — “spongy moth” replaces “gypsy moth” which is a derogatory term to Romanian people. “Spongy” refers to the moth’s fluffy porous egg masses, so look for objections from both chickens and kitchen utensil suppliers.

Meet the Spongy Moth, Whose Old Name Contained an Offensive Term
Having removed the pejorative name “gypsy moth” last July, the Entomological Society of America officially renam…

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