Today in Strangeness: November 21rst...
The great archaeological find, the "Piltdown Man," discovered in 1912, was revealed be a hoax on this date in '53.
Edison announced his invention of the hand cranked cylinder phonograph dubbed the "talking machine" (1877)-- Mary Had a Little Lamb was the first recording made for it. Also on this date, Bob Atheney began bowling for 265 hours spread over 11 days ('75), and the Freedom of Information Act was passed into law ('74).
Piltdown Man
"Mary had a little Lamb" Edison
...also...
Scientists Issue Worrisome Earthquake Warning for 2018:
Scientists have discovered what they say is a correlation between major earthquakes and the Earth's rotation which seems to spell trouble for 2018.
In a recently published paper, a pair of scientists detailed how, while studying data on magnitude 7 or higher earthquakes since 1900, they spotted five periods in which the disasters occurred with unusual frequency.
An attempt to find some connection to these curious outliers eventually led to them to notice that each of these earthquake spurts appeared to happen five years after the Earth's rotation had slowed. Even though the change is imperceptible to humans, it apparently has a dramatic effect on seismic activity, the scientists argue, although they concede that the reason why remains a mystery.
Nonetheless, the researchers say that the relationship is quite apparent and that their findings come at a particularly important and worrisome time.
That is because 2017 marks the fourth year in the five-year 'warning period' that their data suggests pre-dates an increase in massive earthquakes rocking the planet.
As such, one of the authors of the paper issued the ominous prediction that there could be up to 20 such events next year.
Considering that this assessment comes from mainstream scientists rather than, say, Nibiru conspiracy theorists, the chilling prediction is one which should be taken quite seriously.
Unfortunately, little can really be done about it other than to be prepared for disaster, since knowing exactly where and when major earthquakes will occur continues to elude scientists.
However, should the planet be shaken violently several times next year, at least we'll know that it probably isn't Planet X to blame and that, instead, the cause of the commotion came from Earth itself.
...extra...
'Time Traveler' Shares Revelations from the Future:
An odd video circulating online features a man claiming to be a time traveler and purportedly sharing details about events which will unfold in the next few years. The self-proclaimed 'future man,' obscured via a digital distortion to both his voice and face in the footage, calls himself 'Noah' and says that he came to 2017 from the year 2021.
"It is not my intent to deceive anybody. My sole objective is to prove to you that time travel exists in the next few years," he begins the video
This leads to Noah's dramatic declaration that "in fact, I, myself, am a time traveler."
He then proceeds to weave a fantastic tale about how time travel was discovered in 2003, but has been kept secret and only used by "top secret organizations." Things then take a dark turn when Noah breaks down sobbing about how his 'natural' year is 2021, but that he "got fired," ostensibly from the time traveling business, and wound up being stuck in 2017.
After presumably being given some time to collect himself, he moves on to share some future events in order to prove time travel exists.
Unfortunately, his 'revelations' are not particularly remarkable and include 'stunning' insights about 2021 like "electric cars and self-driving cars will become
dramatically improved" and "people are spending a lot of time in virtual reality."
Noah also indicates that there will be a new device akin to Google Glass and Donald Trump will be re-elected in 2020.
He wraps up the video by thanking people for listening and, in true time traveler fashion, wishes everyone "the best future."
While Noah's testimony is quite compelling, viewers of the video would be wise to watch the footage with a healthy dose of skepticism.
For starters, one would hope that a time traveler trying to prove that they come from the future would provide better evidence than a handful of vague insights that anyone could predict today.
Additionally, although Noah's decision to distort his voice and face via rudimentary video editing provides dramatic effect in the video, it also requires quite the stretch of the imagination.
If the 'man from 2021' is to be believed, time travel has existed for the last 14 years, yet the nefarious organizations intent on keeping it a secret are also
somehow unable to decipher a simple digital disguise.
The incongruous nature of these two scenarios, along with other suspicious details about the story such as Noah's youthful appearance, strongly suggest that his entire tale is likely a not-so-clever hoax.
That said, since one can never be quite sure when it comes to time travelers, we wish him the best future and hope that he can find a way back to 2021 without having to wait four years like the rest of us.
I know a guy who has a desert tortoise for a pet in his yard named Mr.Wizard, he comes 'running'
