Real-Life Weirdness

[Polydamas]

Hatchets are cool right? And the Mauser C96 is cool right? So what if we put them together to get a Mauser C96 with hatchet stock?

[Daigoro]

Brains Go Missing
Quote of the day:
However, Schallert said Whitman’s brain likely was part of the collection.
“It would make sense it would be in this group. We can’t find that brain,” he said.

[Johan Larson]

American Nazi Summer Camps of the 1930's

http://gizmodo.com/how-american-nazi...-th-1743267747

[William]

A sea creature called the blue dragon:

1.) Is absolutely beautiful, with blue-and-silver camouflage that help it blend in to the ocean surface, where it floats

2.) Preferentially preys on the hideously poisonous jellyfish known as the Portuguese Man O' War

3.) Instead of digesting the nematocysts (the poison cells) of the jellyfish, stores the poison cells in its colorful fringes, to a concentration level that makes them extremely dangerous to touch.

Easy enough to avoid, right? I mean, they're just camouflaged critters that float aimlessly on the ocean surface in warm waters.

Man, no wonder fiction is full of god-killers. There's always something that eats the next thing.

[Daigoro]

The Doomsday Scam
Interesting report on how red mercury is killing people.

And how to identify it-
Identifying such cheats was easy, the smugglers said, because real red mercury is attracted to gold but repelled by garlic. Wise buyers bring gold and garlic to test the product before cash changes hands. ‘‘You put a drop on a plate and you approach it with garlic, and that drop is going to move away,’’ a third smuggler, Abu Zaid explained. ‘‘But if you put red mercury on a plate and move a piece of gold under the plate, the red mercury is going to move with it.’’

[Johan Larson]

Rockall: a God-forsaken rock in the middle of nowhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall

[Johan Larson]

War on rats in Alberta, Canada.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ticle27504057/

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Johan Larson

Rockall: a God-forsaken rock in the middle of nowhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall

I've always thought Rockall would be a good place to hide a McGuffin, or for a one-on-one showdown between a hero and villain.

Since Rockall appears to be a subsided chunk of continental land, it might also be a good place for a time travel incident...it subsided long before human history, of course, and it subsided slowly, not in a dramatic event (as far we know), but it still has Romantic appeal.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

I've always thought Rockall would be a good place to hide a McGuffin...

It you want to conceal something there, you're going to have to carve a cavity, concrete the McGuffin in, and concrete part of the original rock back over the top. Really serious rock bolts may last a few years. Merely chaining things down will not last through a winter. The Atlantic storms hit Rockall hard.

[Johan Larson]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

I've always thought Rockall would be a good place to hide a McGuffin, or for a one-on-one showdown between a hero and villain.

Just getting up on Rockall takes some doing. The sides are steep and there doesn't seem to be a good place to land a boat.

So, swimming, rock-climbing, a few pistol-shots, and then a bare-chested knife fight at the top.

Be still my heart. :)