Fort Report: Evil Spirits, Exorcisms, and Unknown Objects in Space

Welcome to the weekend, oddnauts!

Go grab a chocolate egg (or a chocolate stout), sit back, and indulge on some of the leftovers from today’s search for the weirdest of the web. What’s in today’s edition? Skunk Apes, deadly exorcisms,  video hoaxes (and why we love them), strange objects in the stars, Bigfoot, big-ass rats, and more!

Read on, weirdos, and remember: if you’re caught, just blame the devil.

Florida’s answer to Bigfoot is a 7- to 12-foot, 300- to 700-pound human-ape thing that really stinks. He supposedly hides in muddy, abandoned alligator caves (thus the smell), and apparently, he’s getting a lot better at hiding.

Policeman lance corporal Mohd Faziri Abdul Rahman, one of the two witnesses who testified at the trial of an exorcism-gone-wrong case, told the Butterworth Sessions Court today that the toddler Chua Wan Xuen was already dead when he and three other policemen arrived at the scene.

Glenn McDonald does a roundup of some of the latest dubious video hoaxes receiving massive attention on the internet, and why psychologists say we believe them. But seriously now, did anyone actually think that Jeff Gordon Pepsi commercial was real?

Messier 82 shines bright amongst the entire universe, five times brighter than our Milky Way. This isolated conglomerate has burned bright in the retinas of our ancestors and has been the basis for countless tales. But on April of 2010 something strange happened. Something that once again has stirred up our imaginations.

In the time honored tradition of shows like The Six Million Dollar Man, Castle is doing a Bigfoot themed episode. Please let him be animatronic.

An offbeat environmental documentary about gigantic rodents gnawing on the edge of the world. Not exactly paranormal, but definitely weird. Looks like a treat. Fund this baby!

An interesting peer reviewed article just released takes a look at how the memories of those who have “come back” to that of real and imagined events. Interesting stuff if you can slog through the heavy stuff.

Scientists at the University of Padua in Italy have used infrared light and spectroscopy (the study of a physical object’s interaction with electromagnetic radiation) to examine the shroud and found that it’s actually much older than a previous study found. Just in time for Easter!

America’s southern border has been a security nightmare for a century or more, creating tension over immigration and national security. But now a group of Laredo residents, aiming high-tech gadgets at the South Texas skies, says the Rio Grande isn’t the only border being violated.

The General Superintendent of Holy Spirit Misson, Bishop Charles Ighele, has attributed the prevalence of vices in the country to evil spirits. What’s everyone else’s excuse?

On Top of the World: Images from the Great Pyramid

You know the news of those guys who illegally climbed the great pyramid and took those awesome pictures? Greg Taylor over at The Daily Grail shows us a gang of ladies who beat them by about 40 years.

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