First 2022 Crop Circle, Giant Oarfish Warning, Viking Royal Burial and More Mysterious News Briefly

Researchers from the University of Toronto studied 2,111 actors from 1929 to 2020 who were nominated for an Academy Award and found that actors who win an Oscar are more likely to live to about 81, while those who are nominated but don’t win or are never nominated at all are likely to live to about 76. Finally, some good news for Will Smith.

In a series of studies published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, researchers found that extraverted people are considered to be poorer listeners than introverts, possibly because extraverts are more interested in how they come across to others rather than actually paying attention to what they have to say. What?

A 15-year study by herpetologists of more than 10,000 species, published this week in Nature, found that one in five reptiles is threatened with extinction and crocodiles and turtles are in especially dire straits – it concludes that reptiles are ignored by conservationist because they are seen as less charismatic than "furry and feathery" creatures. Can’t they get some shapeshifting advice from the Reptilians?

Archaeologists using radar discovered a Viking boat dating to between 500 and 1,000 years ago buried deep in the ground near Kvinesdal in southwest Norway that appears to have been carrying the bodies of royalty or other Viking elites. Food for thought: if this is the vessel to carry you for eternity, would you rather be in the main ship or a lifeboat?

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Maryland studied chimpanzees and gorillas at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and found that the great apes could recognize a friendly face, particularly of their keepers, but would rather stare at strangers like zoo visitors. Subject for next study: which face are they more likely to fling poo at?

The first crop circle of 2022, as reported and videoed by the website Crop Circle Connector, was found in a rapeseed field near Winchester, England – the simple shape was five dots like those on a die with the four outer ones connected by a circular line. Are crop circle makers out of practice after the pandemic lockdown?

Speaking of crop circles, a crop non-circle in the shape of a penis measuring 80 meters (262-feet) long and 20 meters (66 feet) wide found in a meadow in Swindon in northeast Wiltshire, England, was visible on satellite maps before being mowed down recently. Proof aliens have a sense of humor or are they in competition with the Cerne Abbas Giant?

A 3.6 meter (11.8 feet) giant oarfish washed up on the beach at Aramoana in New Zealand – a rare event for the marine biologists who examined it and a bad sign for those who believe it’s a warning from the sea god Poseidon. Isn’t it time Poseidon quit killing giant oarfish and switched to Twitter or TikTok?

During its latest and 26th flight, NASA’s Mars Ingenuity helicopter flew over the wrecked hardware from Perseverance’s entry, descent, and landing, including the sky crane, parachutes and backshell. True to its American roots, it then gave a traffic report and weather update.

The West Japan Rail Company unveiled its humongous Gundam-style robot that can fix remote railway power lines up to 32 feet in the air and move its “WALL-E”-style head under the VR control of its human operator. The operator found the hard way that even robots get tired of singing “I’ve been workin’ on the railroad.”