Real-Life Weirdness

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Anders

And of course, cattle were a common sacrifice to the thunder god in many Indo-European cultures. Is there an ancient pagan connection?

Burnt offerings were a common sacrifice in many cultures. Most gods loved a good BBQ.

[Anders]

Oh yes. The smoke carried the substance of the offering to the Gods. The symbolism - at least in IE cultures - was that the humans invited the Gods to a common meal. And the Gods repaid the favor by granting prayers. Gift exchanges like that lie deep in the human psyche.

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Outside of Annona, Texas, a lightning strike from a thunderstorm killed 23 cows. The bolt hit one cow, and ran along a metal fence, killing the whole row of cows and calves that had been lined up along it.

"A weird little detail", you're thinking, "but there's not much there to game. It happens, right?" Oh, you're more right than you realize.

A lightning bolt kills 23 cattle in Odisha, India.

Lightning kills 23 cattle in Waterford, Ireland.

Just something to keep in mind the next time you're ordering something from Evil Stevie on Warehouse... 23.

Quadrupeds are particularly susceptible to lightning strikes (at least compared to bipeds). A significant danger from lighting (and from downed power lines) is that you get a voltage gradient across the ground, from a very high voltage right at the point of the strike fading away to "ground" voltage far away. Since it is differences in voltage that drives current, something standing on the ground near the strike will have its feet in different places each with a different voltage, which will drive an electric current up one leg and down the other. If it is a human or other biped, well, it can be dangerous but the current path doesn't go right through the heart. For cows or other four-legged things, though, the current path does go through the heart. That's why you sometimes get news stories about entire herds of reindeer being electrocuted by a lightning bolt or similar things.

Luke

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by lwcamp

Quadrupeds are particularly susceptible to lightning strikes (at least compared to bipeds).

But why do the lightning bolts all peter out after 23 animals?

[Anders]

It all comes back to a Jim Carrey film from 2007.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

But why do the lightning bolts all peter out after 23 animals?

because the guys running the cover ups are getting sloppy about how they change the number 13.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

But why do the lightning bolts all peter out after 23 animals?

Because gods love prime ribs.

[Dr. Beckenstein]

Wait, a conspiracy theory was officially declared void, and nobody here took notice?

So, the Bielefeld Conspiracy is no more. The city offered 1 million Euro for anybody that could prove it doesn't exist. People really tried, but nobody could convince the powers that be the absolutely unbiased officials.

The Bielefeld Conspiracy is dead and was put to rest. They even donated some kind of tombstone.

https://www.thelocal.de/20190918/bie...rary-announced

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Dr. Beckenstein

The Bielefeld Conspiracy is dead and was put to rest.

Of course, that's what they want you to believe.

[Flyndaran]

How would you go about proving something doesn't exist? How do you prove a conspiracy doesn't exist either?

It reminds me of what 3 year old I gave as an excuse for why my bed was wet. King Kong. My parents would ask more and more questions for which I had a quick answer for why he was never seen or left any other proof.