Buzz
With the weekend here, it's the ideal time to dive into the strange and fascinating headlines that have emerged over the past few days. Click here to revisit last week's list.
This week, we've got tales from both sides of the law. On one side, there’s an FBI investigation into Bigfoot that’s been going on for decades, along with an Australian crimefighter who uses a didgeridoo to battle crime. On the flip side, we have Russian bridge thieves and the dramatic return of Florida Man.
10. The Return of The Chessman
An Edinburgh family was shocked to discover that they had been unknowingly keeping one of the missing Lewis Chessmen in a drawer for years. Purchased for just £5, the artifact is now estimated to be worth around £1 million at auction.
The Lewis Chessmen are a set of nearly 100 game pieces, mostly chess pieces, carved from walrus ivory and originating from the 12th century. They were unearthed in the early 1800s on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. After their discovery, the pieces were dispersed, with some being exhibited and others sold. Today, the British Museum holds the majority of the pieces, though five of them were lost to history.
It turns out that one of the missing Lewis Chessmen had been with the same family for over 55 years. The grandfather bought it in 1964 from an antiques dealer who had no idea of its true value and sold it for just a fiver. The family cared for it for decades before deciding to get it appraised at Sotheby’s.
The recently rediscovered piece is a warrior, wearing a helmet, carrying a shield, and holding a sword—known as a warder. It’s equivalent to the modern rook in chess. This piece will be displayed in Edinburgh and London before being auctioned off on July 2.
9. Captain Underpants Takes a Trip Down Under
An Australian man successfully fended off a home intruder while wearing only his underpants and wielding a didgeridoo.
Early on Monday morning, Kym Abrook was awakened by strange sounds coming from his house in Adelaide’s Fulham Gardens. He confronted a thief, who fled when he saw Abrook. The homeowner quickly grabbed the nearest weapon, a didgeridoo, and gave chase, undeterred by the fact that he was only in his underwear. In fact, Abrook later claimed that the lack of clothing made him run faster.
Though the thief might have been able to outrun a nearly-naked, didgeridoo-wielding man, Abrook managed to dial the police while in pursuit. Authorities quickly arrived, set up a perimeter, and used a police dog to track down the 32-year-old suspect. The thief was found nearby with Abrook’s wallet and cash in his possession.
The man from Adelaide was generous enough to reenact his chase for local news outlets. While still holding the didgeridoo, this time he was dressed in shorts as he sprinted down the street. His newfound fame has already led to an appearance in a commercial for a local fruit shop.
8. The Treasures of Vermilion
A museum visitor unlocked a safe that had been sealed for more than 40 years.
In May, Stephen Mills, a machinist from Fort McMurray, went on a family vacation to Vermilion, Alberta, Canada. While there, they stopped by the local heritage museum.
During the visit, Mills noticed an old safe that had been gathering dust in the museum's basement for decades. It originally came from the now-closed Brunswick Hotel, which shut its doors in the 1970s. The safe was donated to the museum in the 1990s, but by that time, no one remembered the combination or what might be locked inside. At one point, museum staff even hired a professional locksmith, who concluded that the gears were too old to function and that the safe would likely remain unopened forever.
Like many before him, Mills decided to give it a try “just for fun.” He pressed his ear against the door, listened for any sounds, and dialed the combination 20-40-60. To his surprise, the safe began to creak open.
The contents inside weren’t exactly hidden treasure, but rather old documents from the hotel, including a pay slip and a notepad filled with restaurant orders.
7. How to Save Schrodinger’s Cat
A recent study published in Nature reveals that physicists have conducted an experiment showing that quantum transitions are not as instantaneous and unpredictable as once believed, contradicting the illustration presented by Erwin Schrodinger’s famous thought experiment.
Schrodinger’s cat is a concept designed to illustrate quantum superposition, meaning that a particle can exist in multiple states simultaneously until observed. To demonstrate this, the Austrian physicist proposed an experiment in which a cat was enclosed in a box with a radioactive source, a Geiger counter, and a flask of poison. If an atom decays, it triggers the Geiger counter, which breaks the flask and kills the cat. The cat's fate can only be determined by opening the box; until then, it exists in both a dead and alive state at once.
Not necessarily, according to Dr. Zlatko Minev of Yale University. His team argues that quantum transitions aren't instantaneous but rather incredibly fast. For their experiment, they used qubits, artificial atoms cooled to just a fraction above absolute zero, and observed them indirectly with three microwave generators inside a sealed 3D setup. The transitions were more like a slide than a quantum leap, and could even be reversed with a precisely timed pulse of radiation, thus potentially saving the hypothetical cat from disaster. Minev believes this research could play a crucial role in future quantum computing advancements.
6. Florida Man Strikes Again
It's time once again to witness the wild exploits of Florida Man. This time, he teamed up with a partner to attempt accessing an ATM. However, instead of breaking into it, they managed to weld the hinges shut.
Last Friday night, two criminals attempted to rob an ATM on the Okaloosa Island boardwalk. One acted as the lookout with a crowbar, while the other used a blowtorch on the machine. According to deputies from the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office, the duo “messed up” by welding the hinges closed, leaving the ATM locked and inaccessible. Ultimately, they walked away empty-handed.
The criminals are still on the run. While they made the mistake of committing their crime in front of a surveillance camera and showed less-than-stellar blowtorch skills, they were cautious enough to conceal their faces with masks and scarves.
5. Gangsta Frog and Toad
A mother got more than she bargained for when the T-shirt she bought for her three-year-old daughter from the Chinese online store AliExpress featured a vulgar phrase made famous by the gangsta rap group N.W.A.
Posts showcasing amusing or strange Chinese knockoffs have gained popularity online. These usually feature products that are blatant imitations of well-known brands or items with text in broken English.
Kelsey Williamson from Benton, Illinois, thought she was buying a harmless T-shirt for her daughter. The shirt was white and depicted Frog and Toad, the iconic characters from Arnold Lobel's beloved children's series, riding a tandem bicycle. However, the shirt she received had the same image, but with the addition of the phrase “F—k the police” underneath.
This mishap likely stems from a meme featuring that exact image. The T-shirt makers probably found the image online, not realizing—or perhaps not caring—that it came with the offensive text. Williamson said she will keep the T-shirt but won’t let her daughter wear it outside the house.
4. Sit But Don’t Touch
Ann Marie Vancil made history on Wednesday, setting a new record at only 20 minutes old. She became the youngest person ever to be placed in the Stanley Cup.
Her parents, Elizabeth and Cyrus Vancil, are avid fans of the St. Louis Blues. So, they weren’t about to miss their team’s Game 4 matchup with the Boston Bruins in the finals. Despite Elizabeth going into labor, they managed to host a watch party from their room at Mercy St. Louis Hospital.
After the excitement of their team’s win, the Vancils started hearing buzz that the NHL might bring the Stanley Cup to the hospital to break the record for the youngest baby to sit in it. The previous record was just under 90 minutes, meaning the baby would need to be younger than that to take the title.
It all came down to perfect timing. Elizabeth gave birth to Ann Marie, and shortly afterward, a nurse entered the room and asked if the parents would like their daughter to become the new Stanley Cup baby. Just minutes later, the new record was set.
It turns out that hardcore hockey fans are known for their superstitions. One such belief is that no one should touch the Stanley Cup except for the official “Keeper of the Cup” because doing so could curse their team. Both the Vancils and hospital staff made it clear that Ann Marie was carefully wrapped in towels and never touched the trophy.
3. Bridge Of Thieves
A group of thieves stole a railway bridge from a remote area in the Russian Arctic.
The bridge was located in Murmansk, deep in the Russian Arctic, near the deserted town of Oktyabrskaya. It was once used to transport rare Earth minerals from a nearby plant, but fell into disrepair after the company went bankrupt. Due to the remote nature of the area, authorities are unsure when exactly the bridge was stolen. The theft was first noticed by locals in May.
The bridge measured 23 meters (75 feet) in length and weighed 56 metric tons. Given the scale of the heist, it’s believed that several individuals were involved, likely taking the bridge to sell for scrap metal. They removed the middle section and left the supports along with two sections at either end.
The theft resulted in a loss of about 600,000 rubles ($9,000) for the company that owned the bridge. However, the locals are more concerned that the remaining end sections will stay there for years and become unsightly eyesores.
2. Ice Cream Crackdown
New York City authorities have initiated “Operation Meltdown,” targeting some of the city’s most notorious and defiant criminals: ice cream vendors. Officials seized 46 ice cream trucks whose operators had racked up and evaded thousands of fines over the past decade.
Authorities report that the ice cream vendors targeted in the operation amassed 22,000 summonses between 2009 and 2017. They also accumulated nearly $4.5 million in fines. To avoid paying, the vendors set up multiple shell corporations and regularly swapped their vehicle registrations between them, making it harder to trace their operations.
Some of the most frequent offenses committed by these ice cream trucks included running red lights, obstructing crosswalks, and parking in front of fire hydrants. After a successful sting operation, the city has begun taking action against the worst offenders, filing lawsuits against operators who owe over $10,000 in fines.
1. When The Feds Investigated Bigfoot
The FBI recently unveiled details about an investigation into Bigfoot that took place more than 40 years ago.
The newly revealed documents show that in 1976, the FBI received a request to test hair and tissue samples from Peter Byrne, a cryptozoologist who managed the Bigfoot Information Center and Exhibition in Oregon. While the FBI typically handles criminal investigations, an agent told Byrne they sometimes run tests in the interest of “research and scientific inquiry.” The Bureau agreed to examine the samples.
By using transmitted and incident light microscopy, forensic experts examined the structure of the hairs and compared them with known samples. Their findings pointed to an origin within the deer family. Peter Byrne, now 93 years old, confirmed on Wednesday that the investigation took place and, even after all these years, he still holds out hope of proving the existence of Bigfoot.
