Real-Life Weirdness

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Elaan of Troyius had it exactly backwards. Pheromones in women's tears actually lower sexual arousal and testosterone production.

http://www.livescience.com/health/fe...re-110106.html

Hmm...that actually makes sense, from an evolutionary POV.

[Anaraxes]

Five dastardly plots perpetrated by the Mossad -- at least according to certain Middle Eastern media reports.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article..._alleged_plots

- Trained spy vultures conducting aerial recon of Saudi Arabia

- Killer sharks set loose to undermine the Egyptian tourist industry. (Head-mounted lasers not yet ready for deployment.)

- Heavy metal festival organized to embarrass Gaza flotilla (particularly the German band)

- Facebook (for undermining the 2009 Iranian election, but really, do you have to have a reason to hate Facebook?)

- the "Christmas Day bomber" (to provide an excuse to retaliate, of course)

[sir_pudding]

I've just recently stumbled on the Georgia Guidestones, a granite monument with creepy new-agey instructions for the future, and a Rosicrucian connection, that may have been commissioned by Ted Turner. I want to know how I've gone so long without hearing about this sooner, and why there isn't there an Illumaniti or INWO card for it?

[Anaraxes]

That one is a bit obscure. I'm from Georgia, and I'd never heard of it for 30+ years; only after I'd moved out.

Very fitting, though.

[RogerBW]

Automated stock traders placing strange and currently-inexplicable orders (which don't even get filled):
http://www.theatlantic.com/technolog...traders/60829/

[Anaraxes]

Makes me think of covert channels {wikipedia article} in computer systems. Skynet has to communicate among its elements somehow.

[Luke Bunyip]

A sculptor is placing his artwork under the sea. It looks amazing. It can be found here.

[Ogo]

I wish I could remember exactly where I saw or heard this (book? TV show?). But it was something about weirdness in the built environment of London.

Somewhere in the city is a building, and in the basement, there's a metal grate. Lift it up, and there's running water underneath. Nobody has the faintest idea what the running water is or where it comes from.

[Mylon]

Originally Posted by Ogo

I wish I could remember exactly where I saw or heard this (book? TV show?). But it was something about weirdness in the built environment of London.

Somewhere in the city is a building, and in the basement, there's a metal grate. Lift it up, and there's running water underneath. Nobody has the faintest idea what the running water is or where it comes from.

This strange non-specific introduction makes it sound eerily similar to an urban legend.

[Anaraxes]

The description reminded me of Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere".

Basement damp and flooding is apparently not uncommon in London.