M.J. Rose

An incomplete cocoon? A new type of baby spider nursery? An alien invasion in the making? What on earth is this bizarre and unknown biological structure?

WTF Is This Weird Web-Tower Thing? We Asked Around. No One Knows

by Nadia Drake (WIRED)

“Something in the Peruvian Amazon is making weird, intricate structures that resemble white picket fences surrounding an Isengard-like spire.

No one has any idea who the mysterious craftsbug (fungus? spider?) is, or what the structure is even used for, excepting the fence part, which almost makes sense. Nobody, not even the scientists. We asked.

The first of the fence-and-spire structures, spotted June 7.

Troy Alexander, a graduate student at Georgia Tech, spotted the first of these structures on June 7. The little, seemingly woven fence was parked on the underside of a blue tarp near the Tambopata Research Center, in southeastern Peru. He later spotted three more of the bizarre enclosures on tree trunks in the jungle.

“All of them were on the small island used to view the parrot clay lick at Tambopata Research Center,” Alexander said. He described the fences as small – about 2 centimeters across — and posted a second photo of the structure on the subreddit whatsthisbug last week, hoping someone could explain the origin of the fortified mini-Maypoles. No one could…”

For the rest click here.

Ram Bahadur Bomjon, also known as “Buddha Boy” began his mysterious meditation without food and water on 16 May 2005.

Was it a hoax? Does the boy have divine powers? Is he the Buddha? How can this be explained?

This is a beautiful bit from the Long Now Foundation blog about celestial harmonics and a software developer, Howard Arrington, who has used his own software to “visualize the relationship between pairs of planets, producing a series of intriguing geometric mosaics.” The best thing about it is that you can use the software to create you own images too. Here.

Harmonic Spheres and the Music of the Cosmos