Buzz
Now that the weekend has arrived, it's a perfect chance to kick back and relax with a few peculiar news stories you may have missed when they first made the headlines. Click here if you'd like to revisit last week’s list.
This week, we're broadening our cultural horizons with a visit to a poop museum. We also dive into two odd crimes: a serial toilet clogger and a 33,000-year-old cold case. We also chuckle at some missteps made by organizations that should have been more cautious: A baseball team paid for a memorial tribute to players who were still alive, and NASA sold the original lunar landing tapes for a mere pittance.
10. Remember The Miracle Mets?
The New York Mets were forced to issue an apology after hosting a reunion and airing a memorial montage that mistakenly included two players who were still alive.
The Mets aren't having much to celebrate at the moment. Their season is in shambles, and now they’re dealing with a pitcher who threatened a reporter. However, last Saturday was supposed to provide a brief, nostalgia-filled escape. The New York Mets marked 50 years since the 1969 season, when the “Miracle Mets,” as they were dubbed by the media, won the first World Series in franchise history.
In terms of favorable publicity, this event was meant to be a major success for the organization, but they stumbled. The ceremony, which took place at Citi Field, featured a tribute to all the players from the 1969 team who had passed away. This included outfielder Jim Gosger and left-handed pitcher Jesse Hudson, but there was one issue: Both of these men are still alive.
The New York Mets have since apologized to the players, though Gosger has stated that he will not accept their call.
9. Serial Case In Sheboygan
The Sheboygan serial toilet clogger is now behind bars. The Wisconsin man was sentenced to 150 days in jail and three years of probation for five counts of misdemeanor criminal damage to property.
Thirty-five-year-old Patrick D. Beeman will also be required to complete 100 hours of community service, avoid alcohol and drugs, and pay $5,500 in restitution for clogging the women’s toilets in Deland Park and at his workplace. He was originally charged with 12 misdemeanors, but seven charges were dropped, and he received a 30-day sentence for each of the remaining five. Through the Huber program, Beeman can maintain his job, as long as he returns to jail every day after work.
The investigation into Beeman’s bizarre crime spree began in March, when officers found the women’s restroom at the Deland Community Center flooded after being clogged with a water bottle. Further investigation revealed ten more similar incidents dating back to April 2017. Police identified Beeman as a suspect after he was caught committing the same act at his temp job.
When it comes to his motive, the man apologized but confessed that he sometimes feels the urge to do unusual things.
8. One Space Agency’s Trash Is Another Man’s Treasure
A former NASA intern is set to profit handsomely by auctioning off tapes containing the original footage of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, which the space agency had sold to him many years ago.
As we’ve mentioned before, NASA has certainly had its share of mistakes. One of the most significant was losing the original footage of the first human landing on the Moon. Thirty-five years after the Apollo 11 mission, the agency discovered the tapes were missing and later determined that they had been accidentally reused in the 1980s.
It turns out that at least three of those videotapes still exist. NASA didn't record over them, but they did sell them to an intern, who held onto them for years without knowing their significance. Now, he is putting them up for auction.
In 1976, Gary George spent $217 on 65 boxes of tapes at a government surplus auction. Now, Sotheby’s estimates that those three specific videotapes will bring in about $2 million. Experts from the auction house declared the quality to be “flawless,” as they contain the clearest footage of the lunar landing ever captured. It's fortunate that George followed his father's advice to keep those tapes instead of selling them, as he did with all the other boxes.
7. A Magic Mishap in Makhanda
A magician had to be rushed to the hospital after a crossbow accident resulted in him being struck in the head with an arrow.
Li Lau, also known by his stage name “One Crazy China,” was performing at the 2019 National Arts Festival in Makhanda, South Africa, alongside fellow magician Brendon Peel. During the performance, a crossbow aimed at Li went off prematurely, striking him in the head. Although he was rushed to the hospital, his injuries were minor.
While the magicians did not provide specific details, they emphasized that the trick was designed to prevent the crossbow from firing with any significant force. The bolt merely caused a small wound on the back of Li’s head, requiring stitches. Nonetheless, the show organizers offered trauma counseling to the audience members.
While this incident ended with everyone mostly unharmed, it highlighted the inherent danger of magic, which can sometimes turn fatal. Just two weeks earlier, an Indian magician tragically drowned in the Hooghly River while attempting to recreate one of Houdini’s legendary escapes.
6. Russia’s Got Talent
A group of workers from a factory in Yaroslavl, Russia, has found an inventive way to protest the sanctions imposed on them by the United States: they’ve written and performed a rap song.
Ilya Bondarenko and his colleagues work at a factory owned by GAZ Group, Russia’s largest privately owned automaker. After Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2018, the company became subject to international sanctions. As a result, GAZ is now facing bankruptcy, putting many of its employees, including Bondarenko, at risk of losing their jobs.
Although Bondarenko doesn’t want to delve into the political aspects, he wanted to use his passion for rap music to highlight the struggles of everyday people caught in the crossfire. He composed a rap to the tune of Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” in his home studio. His coworkers enjoyed the song so much that they performed it with him and even shot a music video inside their struggling factory.
5. A Fashionable Arachnid
Five new spider species were discovered by arachnologists in Australia, and one of them was named after the renowned fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. The researchers felt that the spider's appearance mirrored Lagerfeld's distinctive style.
The newly discovered species of jumping spiders are all quite small, roughly the size of a grain of rice. One was found in New South Wales, while the rest hail from Queensland. Among these is the newly named Jotus karllagerfeldi, which honors the legendary Karl Lagerfeld, the creative director of Chanel who passed away earlier this year after a nearly 40-year tenure with the brand.
Arachnologist Danilo Harms explained that the new spider's appearance instantly reminded them of Karl Lagerfeld. It has large, dark eyes, much like the designer’s signature dark sunglasses, and its black-and-white front legs evoke Lagerfeld’s iconic fashion combination of a white detachable collar paired with a black tie.
With the discovery of these five new species, the total number of spider species found in Australia now exceeds 3,500. However, Harms and his team from Monash University believe that there could be twice as many more species still waiting to be identified.
4. A Groundbreaking Find in Iraq
Due to the drought in Iraq, the water levels in a reservoir located in the Kurdistan region have receded, revealing the remnants of a 3,400-year-old palace.
It didn’t take long for a team of Kurdish and German archaeologists to set up an impromptu dig site. According to archaeologist Hasan Ahmed Qasim, this discovery is “one of the most significant archaeological finds in the region in recent years.” The excitement among scholars comes from the fact that this palace, known as Kemune, was part of the Mittani Empire, a civilization that remains underexplored by researchers.
Although it is still early in the excavation, archaeologists have already formed a rough idea of what the palace originally looked like. The structure was built on a raised terrace about 20 meters (65 feet) above the river. In some areas, the terrace featured a mudbrick wall as thick as two meters (6.5 feet).
Inside the palace, some rooms had plastered walls, while others were adorned with wall paintings in shades of red and blue. This discovery is considered an “archaeological sensation,” as it marks the second time surviving wall paintings from the Mittani period have been found.
Researchers have also uncovered ten clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform writing, though the translations are still pending. Kemune was initially spotted in 2010, but the rising water levels prevented further excavation at the time.
3. The Coldest Case
A study published in PLOS One suggests that a well-preserved European skull, dating back 33,000 years, belongs to a victim of homicide, based on the available evidence.
In the 1940s, Romanian miners uncovered a fossilized skull in a cave, later named Cioclovina calvaria. It was dated to the Upper Paleolithic period, but it wasn’t until recent forensic analysis that researchers determined the skull’s owner likely met a violent end.
The skull, belonging to an adult male, exhibited several fractures: two minor ones at the front and a larger one on the right side. The forensic examination revealed that the injuries occurred around the time of death, as there was no sign of healing. The severe blow to the right side seemed to have been inflicted during a direct confrontation, possibly by a person wielding a bat-like object with one or both hands.
The injuries were not inflicted after death, nor were they the result of an accident or a fall. It was determined to be murder. The fracture on the right side of the head was likely the cause of death, though this cannot be confirmed with certainty as only the skull was found.
2. Medical Condition: It’s Complicated
The family and friends of Mohammad Furqan were gathered at his funeral, preparing to say their final goodbyes when they noticed movement in his limbs. The 20-year-old Indian man had been declared dead on Monday, but upon seeing signs of life, he was rushed back to the hospital, where doctors confirmed he was still alive and put him on a ventilator.
In June, Furqan had been injured in an accident and admitted to a private hospital in an unconscious state. His family had recently informed the hospital that they could no longer afford his treatment, and shortly thereafter, the hospital declared him dead.
Following his ‘revival’ at the funeral, Furqan’s family transferred him to another medical facility. Though still in critical condition, his doctor confirmed that he has a functioning pulse, reflexes, and blood pressure, stating that he is “definitely not brain dead.”
Local authorities have initiated an investigation into the private healthcare facility that declared Furqan dead after his family had stopped paying his medical bills.
1. Poop-Up Museum
The Unko Museum in Yokohama is on a mission to change perceptions of poop. It's the latest example of Japan’s ‘kawaii’ (cute) culture, and it’s located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Tokyo, offering visitors a whimsical experience at this temporary pop-up museum.
Right from the start, don’t expect to see any real unko (poop) at the museum. Everything is synthetic, vibrant, and comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes. The exhibits encourage hands-on interaction and are perfect for social media photo opportunities.
The exhibits feature a wall of faux toilets, where visitors can role-play as if they’re using the restroom while music plays in the background. Afterward, they can even take home a souvenir resembling 'poop' from the toilet bowl. One area, named “Unstagenic,” is brimming with vibrant lights, props, and signage, designed to be perfect for Instagram-worthy photos.
In the main exhibition space, a large poop-shaped sculpture periodically releases tiny foam unko every half hour. Guests can also enjoy video games, such as projection-mapped “whack-a-poop” and a football penalty shootout where the player kicks a piece of poo instead of a soccer ball. Naturally, there’s a gift shop with all sorts of unko keepsakes.
Opening in March, the museum quickly attracted over 100,000 visitors in its first month. Initially set to close in August, its immense popularity led to an extension, and the closing date was pushed back to September.
