KRAMPUS KRAWL TURNS INTO BRAWL

Here's the latest wrap-up of weird news from around the world for your edification and enlightenment.

In Leavenworth, Christmas skirmish breaks out over rebranding and Krampus Drink Crawl

The way it’s been portrayed by two religion-advocacy groups, the war on Christmas has descended on the idyllic town of Leavenworth in the Cascade foothills.

You know Leavenworth, the Bavarian-themed destination that puts up over 500,000 Christmas lights during the holidays, appropriately calling itself “Christmastown.” It’s so popular that lodging for Saturday night is mostly sold out, with one room at $371.

Charge No. 1: The Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce took the word “Christmas” out of the name for its famous holiday festival. The “Christmas Lighting Festival” was rebranded “Village of Lights,” the term commonly used on travel sites and news stories about the event, although the chamber had its official name as “Village of Lights: Christmastown.” 

Charge No. 2: On Dec. 4, on opening weekend of monthlong Christmas festivities, the town welcomed members of Krampus Seattle. They danced and paraded in their hairy, horned costumes inspired by the mythical Bavarian creature that’s half-demon, half-goat and that punishes those who misbehave at Christmas. The local chamber of commerce even promoted a “Krampus Drink Crawl.”

According to the Lynnwood-based Family Policy Institute of Washington, headed by Mark Miloscia, conservative former state senator from Federal Way: “At an event that is supposed [to] honor the birth of Jesus Christ, town officials have chosen to include demonic influences . . . These attacks on Christianity are becoming the norm throughout the country.”

And, according to a headline at CatholicVote, of Carmel, Indiana, with 213,000 Facebook followers, “Washington town shocked by erasure of Christmas customs.”

P.R. trouble had come to this winter wonderland.

In response, the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday issued a lengthy statement saying the accusations “are seriously lacking in facts” and were “derived from a rant on Facebook.”

Let’s dissect the sequence of events.

The rant that the chamber referred to was written by Ben Herreid, 39, co-owner of two restaurants in the area, including Larch, a “seasonal Northwest pasta” place in downtown Leavenworth. He’s a member of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men’s charitable organization.

For years, the Knights had a booth selling sausages at the Leavenworth Christmas festival. But this year, the chamber did not get access to Front Street’s right of way – this being the main drag through town – as it is now closed to traffic.

All of that boiled down to the Knights’ not getting a booth because it needed both electric power and water, and such a combination was not available, says the chamber. It’s complicated setting up everything from the winter market to the carolers to the live music.

That didn’t sit well with Herreid. On Dec. 5, he blasted off an email to Troy Campbell, head of the chamber, and posted it on Facebook.

“I’m pretty fired up right now,” Herreid wrote. “ . . . the Knights represent a community and character that unfortunately are becoming all too rare . . . most of whom are elderly and are a dying breed.”

By then, Herreid had made a spot available on his restaurant’s patio for the sausage booth. Kim Washburn, state deputy for the Knights, who lives on Leavenworth’s outskirts, says the booth didn’t get much business this year because it was off the tourist path.

Herreid didn’t stop there. Something else was upsetting him:

“What is the unbelievable to me is that Christmas Town USA has decided to replace a family friendly ‘Christmas Lighting’ to celebrate the ‘Village of Lights.’ And this week the Chamber had the audacity/naivety/stupidity to kick off this non-holiday by inviting Krampus Seattle, a group of demonic horned half-goat cosplayers to give speeches at our pavilion and pub crawl throughout the downtown terrifying our children.”

The postings caught the attention of the two advocacy groups. Neither returned messages and emails for comment.

But the next battle in the war on Christmas was here.

Says Herreid, “It seems I hit a nerve with a lot of people.”

Krampus Seattle’s Facebook page representative is baffled.

“There is no war on Christmas,” he says. He provided his name but asked it not be printed.

“I’ve been hacked on my personal account. There seems to be some negativity out there,” he says.

SOURCE: THE SEATTLE TIMES

Storms In Egypt Unleash Massive Swarm Of Scorpions Killing Three People And Injuring 450

Citizens of Aswan suffered power outages, flooding, and severe hail — only for a deadly swarm of scorpions seeking shelter to invade.

Like most of its African and Middle Eastern neighbors, Egypt is famously arid. That just so happens to be the preferred climate of the Arabian fat-tailed scorpion. However, scores of the creatures were roused from their nests by record storms over the weekend and unleashed on the city of Aswan.

So far, the scorpions have stung over 450 people — killing three.

The southern city was wholly unprepared for the incident as Aswan typically receives less than half an inch of rainfall per year. According to IFL Science, the floods saw officials suspend schools and urge residents to stay inside — as the displaced swarm of scorpions sought shelter in people’s homes at higher ground.

While acting Health Minister Khalid Abdel-Ghafar claimed that no deaths had resulted from stings, local media reported three fatalities and at least 453 people injured. According to Al Jazeera, the hundreds of hospitalized victims were treated with anti-venom from local clinics that helped nearby towns with supplies.

According to the iNaturalist Network of the California Academy of Sciences, the Arabian fat-tailed scorpion is an Old World species endemic to Africa, Asia, and Europe. It generally occupies the dry deserts of Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. Most unnerving, of course, is the sting.

The animal’s Latin name of Androctonus crassicauda translates to “man-killer” — and with a potent cocktail of neurotoxins and cardiotoxins stored in its stinger, the term is terrifyingly apt.

Considered an arachnid due to its eight legs, the scorpion’s venom courses through a victim’s bloodstream to cause internal bleeding and impeded eyesight. Fever, intense sweating, vomiting, diarrhea, and muscle tremors follow. Within an hour, an affected adult will die of heart malfunction while struggling to breathe.

The Arabian fat-tailed scorpion can grow up to four inches long. It relies on pheromones and vibrations to communicate and prefers a solitary life — in order not to compete while hunting. Ideally relegated to its nests, the scorpion kills several human beings per year.

According to Insider, the heavy rainfall and hail led to strong dust storms near the Nile River and carried countless scorpions and snakes into Aswan. Trapped inside their homes with nowhere to go and power outages leaving them in the dark, hundreds of citizens encountered the creature — to frightening results.

Overnight, doctors primarily focused on vaccinating the population against COVID-19 had to divert their efforts to deal with the unexpected emergency. Fortunately, Aswan’s hospitals and medical units carried a stock of 3,350 anti-venom doses and provided surrounding villages with the supplies they needed, as well.

Governor Ashraf Attia announced on Sunday that all schools would be closed, with footage of Aswan’s destructive floods circulating on social media. From damaged homes and destroyed vehicles to entirely flooded farms, the weather itself was dangerous enough — only for panicked scorpions to emerge.

Officials have since urged citizens to avoid areas with trees that these scorpion and snake populations have taken to.

While mild rainfalls continued to drench Aswan on Sunday, the inclement weather has since given way to high temperatures and clear skies. However, local media reports residents are concerned that more scorpions could be on the way as floodwater comes down the surrounding mountains.

SOURCE: ALL THAT'S INTERESTING

Deep Sea Research Vessel Films Bizarre Fish with Transparent Head

Scientists aboard a deep sea research vessel exploring the waters off the coast of California could not believe their eyes when they spotted an incredibly rare and truly bizarre-looking fish that sports a transparent head. The remarkable encounter reportedly occurred earlier this month as a remote operated submarine deployed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) was filming within an underwater canyon at a depth of around 2,000 feet. Suddenly, to their profound surprise, the research team caught sight of an odd shape in the distance and, as it got closer, realized that they were watching a very weird denizen of the deep.

The peculiar creature, known as a barreleye fish, possesses a transparent head that allows observers to see its glowing upturned eyes and a pair of olfactory organs that are positioned where its eyes 'should' be. The barreleye fish's unique appearance is a result of the animal having adapted to the incredibly dark depths of the ocean that it calls home. Seeing the jaw-dropping creature was cause for something of a celebration at MBARI as it was only the ninth encounter the team has had with the fish in over 5,000 dives which have produced a staggering 27,600 hours of video. In light of that, the eerie animal is something of a mystery to researchers, who marveled that the recent encounter was a once in a lifetime experience.

SOURCE: COAST 2 COAST AM

This Brazilian Island Has So Many Snakes, Humans Aren’t Allowed

No humans are allowed on Snake Island and with good reason. There's about one deadly snake per square foot on it.

About 25 miles off the coast of Brazil, there is an island where no local would ever dare tread. Legend has it that the last fisherman who strayed too close to its shores was found days later adrift in his own boat, lifeless in a pool of blood.

The mysterious island is known as Ilha da Queimada Grande, and it is in fact so dangerous to set foot there that Brazil has made it illegal for anyone to visit. The danger on the island comes in the form of the golden lancehead snakes – a species of pit viper and one of the deadliest serpents in the world.

The lanceheads can grow to be over a foot-and-a-half long and it’s estimated that there are between 2,000 and 4,000 snakes on the island, which unsurprisingly is known as Snake Island. The lanceheads are so venomous that a human bitten by one could be dead within an hour.

Snake Island is uninhabited now, but people used to live there for a short period up to until the late 1920s when, according to legend, the local lighthouse keeper and his family were killed by vipers that slithered in through the windows. Today, the navy periodically visits the lighthouse for upkeep and makes sure no adventurers are wandering too close to the island.

Another local legend claims that the snakes were originally introduced by pirates seeking to protect buried treasure on the island.

In reality, the vipers’ presence is the result of rising sea levels – a less exciting origin story than paranoid pirates to be sure, but still interesting. Snake Island used to be part of Brazil’s mainland, but when sea levels rose over 10,000 years ago, it separated the landmass and turned it into an island.

The animals that wound up isolated on Queimada Grande evolved differently from those on the mainland over the course of millennia, the golden lanceheads in particular. Since the island vipers had no prey but birds, they evolved to have extra-potent venom so that they could almost immediately kill any bird. Local birds are too savvy to be caught by the many predators that inhabit Ilha da Queimada Grande and the snakes instead rely on birds who visit the island to rest as food.

Lancehead snakes, which are the golden lanceheads’ mainland cousins, are responsible for 90 percent of all snake bites in Brazil. A bite from their golden relatives, whose venom is up to five times more potent, is less likely to actually happen due to their island isolation. However, such an encounter is far more likely to be lethal if it does happen.

There are no fatality statistics of the golden lanceheads (since the only area they inhabit is cut off from the public), however someone bitten by a regular lancehead faces a seven percent chance of death if untreated. Treatment does not even guarantee a lancehead bite victim will be saved: there is still a 3 percent mortality rate.

It’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to visit a place where a painful death lurks every few feet.

However, the vipers’ deadly venom has shown potential in helping to combat heart problems, leading to something of a black market demand for the venom. For some lawbreakers, the lure of the money is incentive enough to risk almost certain death on Ilha da Queimada Grande.

SOURCE: ALL THAT'S INTERESTING