Did Doomsday Fish Predict Recent Earthquake? [Weird News & Oddities] – Patch

August 23, 2024 ndowd

ACROSS AMERICA — A rarely seen “doomsday fish” — in mythology, a prognosticator of natural disasters — was found in a cove off the Southern California coast just days before a magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck the area.

Oarfish, which live in ocean waters at depths of 650 to 3,300 feet, owe their nickname to Japanese legend, which holds that the sight of them in shallow water is an omen of earthquakes. Indeed, 20 oarfish washed ashore in Japan in the months leading up to the deadly 2011 magnitude 9.1 earthquake.
Scientists dismiss as a coincidence the timing of the earthquake and the recent discovery of the so-called “sea serpent” in the waters of La Jolla Cove. As only the 20th-recorded oarfish to wash up in California since 1901, it gives Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers a rare opportunity to study the fish and ocean ecosystems in general.
“We are interested in how they feed, how their gills function, how their bones form and how they are used, as well as their genetics, their role in open ocean food webs, their diet and how this specimen may have passed,” the Institute’s Ben Frable, senior collection manager of marine vertebrates, told Patch. “There is truly a lot we can learn from this one individual.”
It’s entertaining to fantasize that a groundhog popped its head up in a claw machine at a Pennsylvania arcade in an audition to become that state’s famous weather prognosticator, Punxsutawney Phil.
The truth is much less glamorous. Somehow, the hapless groundhog found its way inside a claw machine at the Meadows Family Fun Mini Golf arcade in Duncansville, Pennsylvania. It’s just a coincidence that’s about 60 miles from Gobbler’s Knob, where Punxsutawney Phil checks for his shadow.
However it happened that the groundhog became trapped among the prizes in the claw game, authorities were greeted by “a wave of stuffed animals … as the groundhog scurried around underneath.”
The vendor of the machine was contacted to unlock the machine and the hapless groundhog was freed unharmed.
A makeshift goldfish pond that popped up in a sidewalk puddle left by a fire hydrant leak in Brooklyn’s Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood has delighted many but by no means everyone who encounters it.
Some passersby concerned about their wellbeing rescued fish from the puddle until Hajj-Malik Lovick, the 47-year-old who stocked the “pond,” posted a sign asking people to stop stealing the fish.
City officials also aren’t thrilled with the “Bed-Stuy Aquarium,” as Lovick calls it. They shut off the water valve while fixing the leak, but one of the pond’s guardians reopened it. These popular goldfish are swimming on borrowed time, though.
Supporters of the pop-up pond are on a full-scale mission to save the goldfish and ensconce them in a heated plexiglass bubble with a proper ventilation system.
A farmers market isn’t usually a stage for a massive drug bust by federal agents. But recently in Forest Park, Georgia, Drug Enforcement Administration agents made a record-breaking seizure of more than a ton (2,585 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine stored among celery boxes in the cargo area of a truck.
The street value of the drugs is estimated at about $3.2 million, according to a news release from the DEA’s Atlanta Division.
“This is a significant and unbelievable amount of drugs to be shipped at one time and to a destination this far from the border,” said Robert J. Murphy, special agent in charge of the Atlanta Division. “It also shows the confidence of the cartel behind this.”
Authorities weren’t looking for celery in a sting operation focusing on 11 stores in the Los Angeles Toy District, but bootleg cannabis products packaged as children’s candies with names like “Razzles Confetti Twinkies” and “SweeTarts Sour Gummies.”
In all, California’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Taskforce seized more than 2.2 million packages of the illegal products, which were marked with fakes of the state seal that must appear on legally grown and marketed cannabis products, authorities said in a news release.
California Department of Cannabis Control Director Nicole Elliott said illegal packaging is dangerous to consumers, “especially when it is ripping off well-known brands that are attractive to children.”
The task force also seized 31 banker boxes and garbage bags of illegally grown and harvested marijuana, 32 boxes of bootleg cigarettes and other tobacco products, authorities said.
A group of middle and high school students from the Tredyffrin-Easttown school district in Pennsylvania are hoping to break a Guinness world record for the “Greatest Height to Drop a Protected Egg Without Breaking.”
To claim the record, T/E Egg Drop Team had to exceed at least 54.13 feet, the record the team set in 2022. They were hoping to drop the eggs 80 to 90 feet.
Their dropping apparatus has gone through several iterations, including design changes to its shape and parachute, all according to strict Guinness guidelines.
Team member Matthew Ma told Patch he and other members of the team “never imagined this idea would take us this far.”
“What started as a crazy concept in our Science Olympiad class has now grown into something real, something with a dedicated team behind it,” he said, adding that achieving the world record “would be a testament to how far we’ve come, really proving that anything is possible.”
An offhanded comment from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is revealing a disturbing level of national ignorance when it comes to “hotdish,” the beloved Minnesota specialty.
Walz, who is Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, admitted in a campaign video that he was “just not much of a spice guy” and that he enjoys “white guy tacos.”
“What does that mean, like mayonnaise and tuna?” Harris wondered. “Pretty much, ground beef and cheese,” Walz responded. “Black pepper is the top of the spice level in Minnesota.”
And wouldn’t you know it, some critics claimed Walz overstated the spice level in his hotdish, not realizing this often bland Minnesota staple is served piping hot from the oven.
“Hotdish” can’t be the only state or regional food tradition that confuses people who aren’t from there. We want to know:
What food or food tradition in your state or region would people be clueless about in other parts of the country? Why do you love it? Or, do think your state’s culinary contribution should be something else?