Equal Time for Flat Earthers, City with No Appendixes, Astronaut Shortage and More Mysterious News Briefly — January 14, 2022

Mysterious News Briefly — January 14, 2022

For those who say they see no value in studying math, researchers have discovered a surprising mathematical feature of megaripples or giant waves of sand found all over the world -- dividing the diameter of the coarsest grains with the diameter of the smallest grains always equals a similar number. OK, so math can be fun if it involves spending time at the beach.

A teen hacker named David Colombo claims he found a hole in Tesla software that allowed him to take “full remote control of over 20 Teslas in ten countries and there seems to be no way to find the owners and report it to them” – he claims he could unlock doors and windows, start the cars without keys, and disable their security systems. Will Tesla fix the glitch or reprogram the software to run down anyone named David Colombo?

The BBC’s director of editorial policy and standards announced the organization will give flat Earth conspiracy theorists airtime in a bid to offset “cancel culture” and showcase its impartiality. Does this mean that 50% of the time British sportscasters must refer to the game of rounders as ‘flatters’?

Owners of the Eight Kings pub on the isle of Portland in Dorset say customers are experiencing ghostly noises, physical contact and sightings of human and animal apparitions ever since the establishment finished a big remodeling project. Look for your favorite DIY network to start a new refurb show called “This Old Haunted Pub.”

A new report from NASA reveals the organization’s astronaut corps is the smallest in 50 years – there are only 44 astronauts today compared to its peak of 150 astronauts in 2000. Have they checked Space LinkedIn?

Scientists onboard the German icebreaker RV Polarstern in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica were watching a live video feed from the Ocean Floor Observation and Bathymetry System (OFOBS) when they spotted 60 million icefish nests dotting the floor of the Weddell Sea -- each guarded by an icefish parent – making this the largest known breeding colony of fish. They need to find a new spot if the ship suddenly makes the sound of chip fryers.

The International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA) consortium has detected a faint universal background hum of gravitational waves coming from pulsars sending them out in a precisely timed pattern, which means that pulsars could be used for navigation, for probing the interstellar medium and studying gravity. This only explains the hum, not the other voices you hear in your head.

If you want to live in Villas Las Estrellas, you have to have your appendix removed first – that’s because this civilian settlement on Antarctica’s King George Island is 625 miles away from the nearest hospital. And you thought packing dishes was the hardest part of moving.

Researchers at UCLA have identified 65 species of animals who make "play vocalizations," or what we would consider laughing out loud – the list includes primate species, domestic cows, foxes, seals, mongooses and three bird species. Not to mention the dogs in your bedroom while you’re having sex.

A meteorite called Allan Hills (ALH) 84001, which was discovered in the Antarctic in 1984 and is considered one of the oldest known projectiles to reach Earth from Mars, has been studied ever since and a new paper reports that the 4-billion-year-old rock has no traces of Martian life. Don’t tell the Perseverance rover.