Real-Life Weirdness

[Flyndaran]

The articles linked don't prove anything. They just suggest maybe the Russians have a completely new brain damage causing ray gun able to operate at extreme ranges without showing any actual proof. That's the claim that needs evidence, not the one suggesting the symptoms could be due to other more mundane causes.
We've heard these conspiracy theories since the beginning of the cold war. Imagining these topics for game is one thing, but seriously considering them is quite another.

[David Johnston2]

The FBI Mysteriously Close New Mexico Observatory

An observatory in New Mexico has been unexpectedly closed due to an unnamed ‘security issue,’ prompting evacuations and a visit from the FBI. The Sunspot Observatory is now currently closed to both staff and the public, with no word on why or when it will be open again.

“We have decided to vacate the facility at this time as precautionary measure,” said spokesperson Shari Lifson to the Alomogordo Daily News. “The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy who manages the facility is addressing a security issue at this time.”

Lifson said that the facility was first evacuated on September 6 and has remained closed since then. According to Lifson, the observatory has no date for reopening yet.

As part of the investigation into the security issue, the observatory has contacted the FBI, which has been reported on the scene with multiple agents and a Blackhawk helicopter. According to local sheriff Benny House, the agency has been working with local law enforcement but refuses to share any details.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/spa...o-observatory/

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

The articles linked don't prove anything.

They show that the FBI, CIA and State Dept are taking the possibility very seriously, so there's a lot of presumably clever people, who are more familiar with the actual evidence, who don't share your skepticism. In that context, I would weigh the claims differently than if the same claims were made on a conspiracy blog or as a meme popping up in my Facebook feed.

[David Johnston2]

I recently became aware of a patent registered by Amazon that seems like something that would fit nicely into a dystopian setting. It's a mobile cage/workspace that can move workers around a facility. As best as I can figure it out, the cage wheels around the warehouse to get close to the packages. A robot arm would pick up packages and lower them in and out through the open top of the cage. The person inside the cage would have to be released by a supervisor operating the digital combination lock on the outside when they were ready to leave.

https://anatomyof.ai/img/amazon-dist...on-centers.svg

Hello Reign of Steel!

[(E)]

Ig Nobel prizes

Including Kidney Stone removal using a roller coaster.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45513012

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

The FBI Mysteriously Close New Mexico Observatory

Originally Posted by Delta Green FB page

The scenarios keep writing themselves.

And there are so many ways to spin them...

[ravenfish]

I think the assumption is malice rather than incompetence- if one believes that (certain portions of) the U.S. government desires to sabotage U.S.-Cuban relations, then one would be inclined to take claims of High-Tech Cuban Secret Weapons with a grain of salt. Certainly, the sheer variety of accusations the government has made (we've gone through sonic weapons, microwave weapons, I think chemical attacks were hinted at one point- I'm don't think there have been accusations of voodoo dolls or the cruciatus curse, but I feel like there's been nearly everything short of that) could leave one less inclined to believe in the veracity of any single one. The lead-up to the more recent Iraq war has shown that the CIA is quite capable of (to take the most generous interpretation) fooling itself regarding foreign weapon capacities when the top brass wants to believe.

[somecallmetim]

Spiders blamed after broken siren played creepy nursery rhymes randomly at night to UK townsfolk


Apparently a factory in the rural UK has a siren that plays an creepy nursery rhyme, a motion detector that activates the siren, and spiders large enough to trip the motion detector and prone to doing so in the middle of the night. This seems like something that calls for further exploration in a Creatures of the Night supplement. Or just a good excuse for a fright check while investigating an abandoned facility.

[Flyndaran]

What I find creepiest is that they decided thieves would be scared off by nursery rhymes.
Monsters held at bay by creepy shaking voices singing children's songs sounds mood inducing.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

What I find creepiest is that they decided thieves would be scared off by nursery rhymes.

It's not for holding off thieves so much as The Ipswich Horror.