News of the Weird

We live in strange times. People are getting drunk without drinking, cheap jewelry is saving lives, the rise of the robots, the secrets of the Egyptian Pyramids finally uncovered, and more ...

Jun 07, 2024

Not Drinking, but Stinking Drunk

For two years, a 50-year-old Canadian woman, desperate for help, trekked to emergency rooms because she felt drunk even though she hadn’t touched a drop.

And during all those visits, ER doctors sent her away with a diagnosis of intoxication.

Turns out, they weren’t wrong. She was drunk. But not because she was imbibing.

On her last trip, according to a report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, she was finally diagnosed with “auto-brewery syndrome.” It’s a rare condition where fungi in the gut literally brew alcohol from carbohydrates.

Turns out, she had been taking antibiotics for years because of urinary tract infections. Doctors surmise the antibiotics wiped out the healthy microbes in her GI tract and in their absence a weird fungus took root turning her gut into a brewery.

They put her on anti-fungal medication, had her switch to a low carb diet, and eventually prescribed a course of probiotics to restore her microbiome.

She’s fine now.

Saved by Junk Jewelry

A Colorado man narrowly escaped death when a necklace he was wearing stopped a bullet, police said.

The .22 caliber bullet was fired during an argument between two people in Commerce City. It smacked into the metal necklace around one of the men’s necks and became lodged in the chain-link jewelry.

What likely would have been a fatal injury resulted in a small puncture wound. His assailant has been charged with attempted homicide.

Police said the necklace looked like silver but was a cheap knockoff of some other metal. Good thing. Silver is soft and might not have stopped the round.

Who do You Trust? Robots over People

Turns out kids have more faith in robots than people, which, of course, shows excellent judgment on their part.

In a study of 111 kids aged 3-6, they were given the chance to choose who to believe when shown presentations from people and robots. Both the humans and the robots showed them objects (think plates, spoons, and such) and both misrepresented some of the objects.

A majority of the kids were more forgiving of the robots. Why? Robots aren’t mean on purpose, but people can be.

Now We Know How the Pyramids Were Built

The question has lingered for centuries: How did the ancient Egyptians transport those huge stones to the construction sites of the pyramids?

Turns out, it could have been by barge using a long-buried branch of the Nile River that once flowed nearby. This would explain why 31 pyramids were built in a long chain — they followed the path of the long-gone river.

Beethoven Had Lead Poisoning, but That’s not What Killed Him

The famous composer lost his hearing and suffered from extreme gastrointestinal ailments, all likely caused by heavy metal poisoning — mainly lead but also mercury and arsenic. The culprit: Beethoven liked his wine and he drank it — prodigiously — from vessels containing lead.

We now know this because of analysis of his hair samples that had been preserved. But, it turns out, the lead in his system might have wrecked his hearing, but it wasn’t enough to kill him.

No, what did him in was hepatitis.

J.C. Bruce is a journalist and author of The Strange Files series of mysterious adventures. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and Florida. He was recently awarded a doctorate degree from the Lightgate Institute of Extranormal Studies, a Miami institution he totally made up for his award-winning novel Strange Timing.