woman of science (and THE NIGHT!)

amateur folklorist, space educator, enthusiastic skeptic. I love urban legends, late-night diners, road mythology, and things that go bump in the night. side blog. 

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Hey there!

I made this blog over a decade ago because a boy who had a crush on me complained that I kept posting morbid stuff on my personal. I didn't like him back; I don't know why I cared.

Anyway. For years I wrote mostly about cryptids, folklore, weird art, paranormal memes, and haunted road trip content, all from a passionate-but-skeptical viewpoint. (I didn't always hit the mark, but I've always tried - you learn a lot through years of reading weird stuff.)

I'm soft reviving this blog to have an outlet for current fascinations, since I don't do this type of writing on my personal account. I'll probably mostly post weird space history, white collar crime, folklore (mostly modern / urban legends), mass psychogenic illness instances (dancing plague, Havana syndrome, etc), historical medicine, and quotes from things I'm reading.

I spent years in STEM education and am currently in a career change to the medical field, I write with research and reality in mind. I welcome all perspectives, as long as they're respectful to experiencers of high strangeness. Don't be a jerk, you know?

I don't go for super heavy or gory content, and I do try to tag for common triggers and describe images in my own posts.

ID: the blogger, a white person with brown hair pulled back, kneels next to a sign that reads Lily Dale Spiritualist Church NSAC. There's a sign with a hard-to read schedule behind them, and two older, well-kept buildings. The blogger is wearing jeans, a purple shirt, a leather jacket, and aviators. Their water bottle has a little alien on it.]

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These photos are from a secret police folder on a Bucharest monestary that was home to a group of Old Calendarists, a conservative and traditional Orthodox Christian splinter group.

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The Skoptsy sect was an offshoot of Russian Orthodox Christianity that, for two hundred years, amassed thousands of followers from a wide spread of backgrounds. Followers of the sect believed that human genitalia were a mark of original sin and that true Christianity required castration, genital mutilation, and mastectomies. Some followers removed body parts in private, while others were given the "fiery baptism" in private ceremonies.

The sect began in the 1750s, after a member of a mystic, self-flagelating group castrated a handful of followers before being exiled to Siberia. This persecution galvanized followers, who announced that one of the original disciples, Kondrati Sselivanoff, was the second coming of Christ. The group grew to include about 10,000 followers, many peasants but many wealthy, including a handful close to the Tsar.

Despite significant theological and lifestyle differences, the Skoptsy sect operated within the Orthodox church for the first half of its lifespan. After the publicized deaths of some converts, the group spread to Romania. Back in Russia they ramped up recruiting efforts and began small communities called "Naves", where castration and vegetarianism were mandatory.

The sect was mostly purged during Stalinist times, and as far as I can tell, the last vestiges of the group petered out sometime between 1970s and the 1990s. By then, the group seems to have ceased the practice of ceremonial self-surgery.

Sources: x,x,x,x,x,x

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Investigators identify last remaining Bear Brook murder victim — but a new mystery emerges

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office announced it has finally identified the victim known as “the middle child,” one of four bodies f

Announced within the last hour - the only unidentified victim of the Bear Brook murders - was identified through forensic genealogy and careful searching through various public records.

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Colonia Dignidad was a religious cult founded by ex-Nazi Paul Schäfer, who had lost face in post-war Germany after sexually preying on young boys. Men and women were kept strictly separate, and children were raised by one woman and punished if they spoke to their parents. Members were ordered to beat and torture each other for infractions as seemingly insignificant as moving while sleeping or attempting to speak with their children.

Colonia Dignidad operated while Chile was under the brutal Pinochet dictatorship. When the government learned of the Colonia's isolated secure compound and culture of torture, they began paying Colonia leadership to torture and disappear political prisoners.

In 1997, new leadership in Chile attempted to capture Schäfer and investigate the crimes that occurred there, placing the colony under siege. While some original residents still live there, the colony transitioned to a tourist destination, which many survivors strongly criticize. An unsourced but evocative quote on the Wikipedia page for the colony compares this to "building a McDonalds in Auschwitz".

In 2011, two of Colonia Dignidad's leaders escaped back to Germany, where the government has shown little interest in holding them accountable for their crimes, despite formal requests from the Chilean government, human rights organizations, and many victims.

[hungry-joe]

Yeah that tracks

[what-even-is-thiss]

Man you could just do stuff back then huh

[stjohnstarling]

Can you even call yourself a con artist if you’re not legally changing your name to avoid false advertising laws?

[amnhnyc]

Have you ever seen a giant worm? 👀🪱 While there are thousands of earthworm species known across the planet, only a handful are supersized. Members of the genus Martiodrilus can grow up to an incredible 4.9 ft (1.5 m) in length and weigh up to 1.1 lbs (0.5 kg)! Inhabiting underground burrows in parts of South America such as Colombia and Ecuador, these worms are rarely seen above ground—but can sometimes be heard as they move through the soil. 

Photo: OWP / oliverpatrick, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

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The mysterious Giant Woolly Rat: Largest rodent in Australia and Oceania documented for first time

A six-month expedition to the tropical island of New Guinea has led to a remarkable discovery by a young Czech doctoral candidate from the B

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While Japanese Wolf has been officially extinct since the Meiji period, multiple sightings have been reported in the last century and a half. Despite being deeply woven into Japanese mythology, they were hunted to extinction, their demise hastened by the introduction of new diseases. Positively identifying these sightings as wolves is difficult. The wolf was very small, making it a similar size to wild dogs and thus easy to misidentify, even for locals. Somewhat damningly, Japanese wolves moved in packs, and only individual animals have been sighted post-extinction. One sighting I find personally compelling is the 1910 sighting of an animal that was identified as a Japanese wolf, believed by skeptics to be a non-native species that had recently escaped from a zoo. Zookeepers, when presented with the corpse, claimed it was not their escaped wolf.

Outdoorsman, business owner, and well-regarded independent researcher Hiroshi Yagi captured 19 clear photos of a wolf-like animal in 1996. While they have not been positively identified, to my knowledge the images have never fully been debunked as a wild dog despite close study by multiple experts. Due to the ambiguous identity, the animal they show is often called Chichibu-yaken, the "Chichibu wild dog". Recordings made in 2018 captured wolf-like howling, more tentative evidence that a small population may remain. Without positive DNA evidence, though, we'll likely never know for sure.

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The Tully Monster is a bizarre fossil discovered in the 1950s in Illinois. It is unlike any other known creatures, featuring eyes on a stalk and "a proboscis tipped with a mouth-like appendage". (Quoting Wikipedia here as I find the verbiage particularly uncomfortable. You're welcome!) For decades, scientists couldn't even determine whether it was a vertebrate or invertebrate, despite many high-quality fossils being found. Tullimonstrum gregarium played a part in a 1960's hoax known as "the dancing worms of Turkana", is involved in a fringe Loch Ness Monster theory, and is the official state fossil of Illinois.

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Twenty five years ago this month, Judy Messoline saw a UFO. The experience (and her desire for some tourist cash) led her to open the UFO Watchtower, which saw 10,000+ visitors last season. Recently, the watchtower acquired the skeleton of Snippy the horse, famous for being the first big "alien mutilation" case in the US.

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An unfortunate frog goes flying during the launch of an uncrewed rocket in 2013. NASA staff have confirmed that this is a legitimate picture and is not doctored in anyway.

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(Left: 2016 forensic facial reconstruction of Buckskin Girl from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Right: Marcia King)

One of America's most famous unidentified people, Marcia King was known as "Buckskin Girl" or the "Miami County Jane Doe" for years after her untimely murder while experts tried to identify her body.

Marcia King was a frequent hitchhiker during the late '70s/early '80s, and her family never officially reported her missing. After her body was found in Ohio in 1981, authorities attempted to ID her through dental records and fingerprints. Forensic portraits of her were also released to the media, yet despite all these efforts, she remained unidentified.

Marcia's case remained cold for years - authorities could not identify her or her killer, and her whereabouts remained a mystery to her family. Her case was tentatively connected to multiple other cases, although none of these connections were ever proven.

In 2018, authorities closed the case through forensic geology, connecting Marcia's DNA to that of a first cousin. While her family requested privacy from the media, Marcia's case is still an active homicide investigation as of 2020. Officials hope that new technology may be able to connect hair found on Marcia to her murderer, finally closing her case after over 40 years.

[inthedarktrees]

ESP test at the American Society for Psychical Research

Henry Groskinsky, “ESP,” Life, 1972

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For over thirty years, Simona Kossak lived in an off-the grid hut in Białowieża Forest. She dedicated her life to ecology (she had a PhD in Forest Sciences), biology, and protecting Europe's oldest forest. She and her partner, a photographer, lived with a tame boar, who she'd raised from a piglet. Simona was called a witch by some locals and was known for her "terrorist crow", who would attack cyclists and steal people's personal belongings. In 1993, she stole jaw traps set by other researchers, later arguing in court that it was an unacceptable risk to the minuscule lynx population.

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1938