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There's A (Non-Serial-Killer) Reason Severed Feet Keep Washing Up On Beaches
Way back in 2010, we discussed a gruesome mystery that was at the time very much unsolved. Since 2007, 14 shoed feet (and not seven pairs) had washed up on the shores of the Pacific Northwest. For over a decade, police were unable to find any leads or evidence to uncover the identity of the foot fetish killer. Now we know it was Mother Nature. (Who figured she'd have a thing for feet? You never can tell.)
BC Coroners Service Personal hygiene in Seattle and Portland is so bad that athlete's foot has evolved into something much more serious.
After inspecting the latest foot, police discovered it belonged to a suicidal individual. And suicide risk turned out to be a common trait among the corpses, with people who died in storms and accidents at sea making up the rest of the casualties. What had happened to their bodies was simply the cruel circle of life. Dead things decompose and get nibbled on by fish. But the feet, enclosed in a sturdy shell of shoe, escape this fate and eventually wash up on the shore, scaring boogie-boarders.
But why did this phenomenon only start in 2007? After all, people have been dying at sea since the days of moccasins and buckled pirate booties. As it so happens, the timeline matches up quite nicely with when shoe companies started introducing air pockets and foam into their designs, making shoes buoyant and seaworthy in the most macabre way. Even more terrifying, since no one has ever found a matching pair, "there probably are a bunch of running shoes bouncing around out there," according to Barb McLintock, a British Columbia coroner. "But no one's ever going to find them."
4
The "Wow!" Radio Signal Was Probably A Loud Comet
On August 15th, 1977, Ohio State University's "Big Ear" telescope received a strong signal from the Sagittarius constellation. It lasted 72 seconds, was louder than anything else in the sky that night, and covered frequencies similar to those of human origin, strongly implying alien involvement. When astronomer Jerry Ehman was sifting through the data a few days later, he discovered the transmission, circled it, and wrote "Wow!" -- already overwhelmed by the amount of bad History Channel documentaries this discovery would cause.
NAAPO, via Wikimedia Commons
It couldn't have been better believer bait if he wrote it directly on tinfoil.