The Bizarre, the Odd, and the Mysterious!

[Half_Man_Half_Wit]

Generally, I think of myself as a mostly rationally-minded, no-bullshit kind of guy – I accept the reasonable explanation over the fanciful one, I try to keep my axioms minimal, and I slice even my vegetables with Occam’s razor (at this point, I feel I should insert a brief interlude to the benefit of those already eye-rolling and hovering their mouse cursors above the ‘close page’-button: No, I am not going to tell you how my life only became truly complete when I chose Jesus as my personal saviour, or anything of that sort. This thread is meant to be far more lighthearted than that.).

However, as a sort of flip-side to this rationalist stance, I am also somewhat fascinated by the strange, the out of place, the mysterious and unexplained – The Thing That Would Not Fit. In my more fanciful moments, I like to view this as a part of my sceptical nature, as something that constantly challenges even my most cherished assumptions, but in reality, I think I just love a good mystery. And I thought, on this here board, maybe there’s some others that do, too.

So that’s what this thread here is for: Mysteries. Whatever strikes you as odd, strange, or simply interesting; from small curiosities to things that call your worldview into question; from Nazca lines to the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa, you are invited to post about it here.

Any and all speculation about the nature of the items posted in here is welcome and encouraged (well, it’s not like I could do anything about it, anyway).

I’ll start with the Voynich manuscript. It’s a book supposedly written in the 15th century, (originally) consisting of 272 pages filled with strange illustrations and text that has so far withstood any attempts at deciphering it; there is strong evidence that it is a real language, yet the alphabet is completely unknown and bears only superficial resemblance to any known script.

Then, there’s Pedro, the mystery mummy, mummified remains allegedly found in a ‘sealed off’ cave in the San Pedro mountains. It’s 40cm small, yet had closed fontanelles indicating a mature being.

And a personal favourite for the end – the Wow! signal. Recorded in 1977 at the Big Ear radiotelescope, it looks pretty much exactly like one would expect an interstellar signal to look, so much so that its discoverer circled it on the printout and wrote an excited ‘Wow!’ next to it; however, the signal was never observed again.

So! Got any more?

[3acresandatruck]

Here’s one I find interesting:

@Wikipedia

The sailing stones, also referred to as sliding rocks or moving rocks, are a geological phenomenon found in Racetrack Playa, Death Valley. The stones are assumed to slowly move across the surface of the playa, inferred from the long tracks behind them, without human or animal intervention. They have neither been seen nor filmed in motion and are not unique to The Racetrack. Similar rock travel patterns have been recorded in several other playas in the region but the number and length of travel grooves on The Racetrack are notable. Wikipedia

[Spice_Weasel]

I vote for The Bloop.

Dunno if you’ve seenthis webpage yet or not, but there’s the Cracked spin on both the Voynich manuscript, The Bloop, and others.

[Hunter_Hawk]

@Half_Man_Half_Wit

I am also somewhat fascinated by the strange, the out of place, the mysterious and unexplained – The Thing That Would Not Fit.

Another term for this is “damned data”.

I assume you’re familiar with the Fortean Times?

[LurkMeister]

@Half_Man_Half_Wit

I’ll start with the Voynich manuscript. It’s a book supposedly written in the 15th century, (originally) consisting of 272 pages filled with strange illustrations and text that has so far withstood any attempts at deciphering it; there is strong evidence that it is a real language, yet the alphabet is completely unknown and bears only superficial resemblance to any known script.

Off the top of my head I can’t think of anything, but I was amused that in the third Librarian movie there was a throwaway reference to the Voynich Manuscript; the title character was told that he needed to translate it by the next morning.

[ivan_astikov]

I marvel at The Coral Castle. Whether or not there is a mundane explanation for its creation, it is still an amazing feat for one man.

p.s. I don’t know how much truth there is to this bit.

The Coral Castle site claims that “[Ed Leedskalnin] has baffled engineers and scientists!” However a skeptical website claimed that “despite the information on their Web site, the Coral Castle information booth was unable to identify a single scientist or engineer who had specifically examined the castle”

[Clothahump]

I’ve always wondered what exactly caused the Anasazi to basically go poof into thin air.

[Stauderhorse]

How about that prickly feeling you sometimes get that tells you to turn around, and then someone’s watching or staring at you? What causes that? Is it a real phenomenon or just a confirmation bias thing?

[Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension]

@Hunter_Hawk

Another term for this is “damned data”.

I assume you’re familiar with the Fortean Times?

I’m also a rationalist scientist who is fascinated by the weird. I must second the recommendation of The Fortean Times. If I had to chose between FT and the Dope, I don’t know which way I’d go. FT is the only magazine to which I subscribe.

[elbows]

Stone kettles, perfectly round, naturally formed, large stones, they only occur in a couple of places on earth, one nearby to me. They are very odd and wonderous to me.

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

@olivesmarch4th

I vote for The Bloop.

First thing I thought of.

Tennessee’s Old Stone Fort is mysterious, & 25 minutes drive from here.

Old Stone Fort (Tennessee)

[Shirley_Ujest]

My only beef with Fortean Times, and how I love it so, is the cost of magazine here in the US has gone up considerably since I first found it ten years ago or so.

[Lumpy]

Here’s what as conservative a source as the Encyclopedia Britannica had to say on the subject of Levitation:

The puzzling thing about levitation is that while it is intuitively rejected as impossible by the mind accustomed to scientific habits of thought, there is nevertheless a great weight of evidence in favour of it’s occcurrence. This evidence would indeed be regarded as overwhelming if the phenomenon were intrinsically more likely.

[Oregon_sunshine]

Clothahump, I think they migrated and (eventually) became the Hopi. Hopi oral tradition spells it out, IIRC.

[Half_Man_Half_Wit]

@3acresandatruck

Here’s one I find interesting:

Oh, that’s brilliant! Exactly what I’m looking for. I believe I have read about those stones before, though not in any great detail; it seems almost wilfully contrarian, stones, the very archetypes of things immobile, leaving tracks on the ground.

@olivesmarch4th

I vote for The Bloop.

Dunno if you’ve seenthis webpage yet or not, but there’s the Cracked spin on both the Voynich manuscript, The Bloop, and others.

I read the article, and it actually prompted me to post this thread that I had floating around in the back of my head for a while now, but most of the items I didn’t think were all that interesting, or at least not all that odd; the Antikythera mechanism is certainly fascinating despite being composed of (from a present day view) mundane gears and dials.
I had been puzzling about the bloop signal, though; what the Cracked article neglects to mention is that its supposed coordinates are awfully close to that given by Lovecraft for the sunken city R’Lyeh…

@Hunter_Hawk

Another term for this is “damned data”.

I assume you’re familiar with the Fortean Times?

Only in passing; I’ve never come across it here in Germany, and only read references to it online. I’ll probably have to check it out on the strength of the recommendations in this thread though, thanks!

@ivan_astikov

I marvel at The Coral Castle. Whether or not there is a mundane explanation for its creation, it is still an amazing feat for one man.

It undoubtedly is. Somewhat of the opposite approach, by the way, was taken by French postman Ferdinand Cheval, who single-handedly built his Palais Ideal over a period of 33 years from stones he collected on his daily route.

[Half_Man_Half_Wit]

@Lumpy

Here’s what as conservative a source as the Encyclopedia Britannica had to say on the subject of Levitation:

The puzzling thing about levitation is that while it is intuitively rejected as impossible by the mind accustomed to scientific habits of thought, there is nevertheless a great weight of evidence in favour of it’s occcurrence. This evidence would indeed be regarded as overwhelming if the phenomenon were intrinsically more likely.

I can’t help but raise an eyebrow at the phrase ‘weight of evidence’. :dubious: Does it go on to name any of it? I can’t recall ever coming across any…

[Mangetout]

The Antikythera Mechanism is the one for me. It’s not the complexity of the thing that gives me the shivers - people are clever and have been clever for many millennia.

It’s the way it so closely resembles, say, Victorian design and construction, even though there appears no connection between the two technologies. I would expect an ancient mechanism to look a bit less familiar.

[Projammer]

I’ve always wanted to take a look at the workings of this one.

The Fountain of Lions, the Alhambra’s alabaster basin flanked by 12 white marble lions, which signify strength and courage. In the 15th century, each lion spit a stream of water every hour — a clock far more advanced than any sundial at the time.

During the Reconquest of Spain in 1492, Christians disassembled the clock to see how it functioned. Since then, no one has been able to get it to work.

[Zoe]

Fractals, are patterns which can be used to describe the way that natural objects look. A fractal is a pattern that scales, sizes itself down: repeats itself in smaller and smaller scale. In a fractal pattern of a tree, every branch duplicates the whole. I learned recently that the same pattern is duplicated in the pattern of the forest. I really just don’t understand “how it knows.”

[Satellite_Guy]

This is an interesting site I’ve gone through a bit, which covers many of the items mentioned here.

One of my favorites on this site is the Piri Reis map.

S^G