Strange news: Latest from the world of the bizarre and eccentric
Blaine sets breathtaking record
(Apr 30, 2008)
Magician David Blaine has set a world record by holding his breath for 17 minutes and four seconds on Oprah Winfrey's US TV show in Chicago. The star was pulled from a water-filled sphere, and then said he had begun to doubt if he would achieve his goal as he considered his heart rate too high. The previous record, which was 32 seconds shorter, was set in February.
A tree said to be the oldest on the planet – thought to be nearly 10,000 years old – has been found in Sweden. Scientists from Umeaa University discovered the spruce on Fulu Mountain in Dalarna province while carrying out a census of tree species there in 2004. The age of its genetic material was recently calculated using carbon dating at a laboratory in Miami, Florida.
'They're here': The mechanism of poltergeist activity
(Apr 1, 2008)
The sight of small blonde girls watching television is guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of anyone who has watched the movie Poltergeist. We're right to be terrified, say physicists. Children generate poltergeist activity by channelling energy into the quantum mechanical vacuum.
Shroud mystery 'refuses to go away'
(Mar 22, 2008)
There are very few Christian relics as important and as controversial as the Shroud of Turin. This linen cloth, measuring about 4.4m by 1.1m (14.4 × 3.6 feet) holds the concealed image of a man bearing all the signs of crucifixion. Scientific tests have proved that there are blood stains around the marks consistent with a crown of thorns and a puncture from a lance to the side.
A dolphin has come to the rescue of two whales which had become stranded on a beach in New Zealand. Conservation officer Malcolm Smith told the BBC that he and a group of other people had tried in vain for an hour and a half to get the whales to sea. The pygmy sperm whales had repeatedly beached, and both they and the humans were tired and set to give up, he said.
An image of a mysterious shape on the surface of Mars, taken by NASA spacecraft Spirit, has reignited the debate about life on the Red Planet. A magnified version of the picture, posted on the internet, appears to some to show what resembles a human form among a crop of rocks. While some bloggers have dismissed the image as a trick of light, others say it is evidence of an alien presence.
Without warning, the orange UFO swooped toward them. The crew of the RAF Vulcan bomber banked hard and radioed they were being chased across the Atlantic by a large mysterious object. The incident was classified as a UFO sighting and the details were immediately locked away. Now, 30 years later, the extraordinary encounter is among thousands of previously secret cases contained in the government's 'X-Files' that officials are to release in their entirety.
A US TV presenter says he and his team have found a series of footprints in the Everest region of Nepal resembling descriptions of the mysterious Yeti. The presenter and his colleagues say they are "very excited", although they are not saying they definitely believe it is the mark of the Yeti. Josh Gates and his crew work on a series called Destination Truth, which follows reports of fantastic creatures.
A jellyfish invasion has wiped out Northern Ireland's only salmon farm, killing more than 100,000 fish. A Northern Salmon spokesman said last week's attack could cost more than £1m. Billions of small jellyfish, known as Mauve Stingers, flooded into the cages about a mile into the Irish Sea, off Glenarm Bay and Cushendun.
A group of former pilots and government officials has called on the US government to re-open an investigation into claims of UFO sightings. Project Blue Book, run by the US Air Force, was stopped in the late 1960s. The group, which includes former military officers from seven countries, all say they have seen a UFO or have conducted research into the phenomenon.
A mystery creature washed up on Orkney almost 200 years ago was "strikingly similar" to descriptions of Nessie, the Highlands Science Festival will hear. Geneticist Dr Yvonne Simpson, who hails from Orkney, has researched the Stronsay Beast. Its carcass, which some said was that of a basking shark, was found off Stronsay in 1808.
A dried-up orange from the lunchbox of a miner fatally injured on the day he was due to eat it has gone on display in a Staffordshire museum. The fruit belonged to Joseph Roberts who was injured in an explosion at a Stoke-on-Trent colliery in 1891. It had been kept by his family but has been donated to the Potteries Museum.
A clam dredged up off the coast of Iceland is thought to have been the longest-lived creature discovered. Scientists said the mollusc, an ocean quahog clam, was aged between 405 and 410 years and could offer insights into the secrets of longevity. Researchers from Bangor University in north Wales said they calculated its age by counting rings on its shell.
An Australian performer who has had an ear grafted onto his forearm in the name of art has sparked controversy. Cyprus-born Stelios Arcadiou, known as Stelarc, says his extra ear, made of human cartilage, is an augmentation of the body's form. But surgeons questioned whether such an operation should have been carried out, given the absence of clinical need.
Some 600 people in Peru have required treatment after an object from space – said to be a meteorite – plummeted to Earth in a remote area, officials say. They say the object left a deep crater after crashing down over the weekend near the town of Carancas in the Andes. People who have visited scene have been complaining of headaches, vomiting and nausea after inhaling gases.
