StrangeSights

• It’s official - mermaids don’t exist. That’s according to the US Government’s National Ocean Service who issued a statement earlier this month saying exactly that: “No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found.” Noting that belief in mermaids may have arisen at the “very dawn of our species” the statement adds: “Why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all seafaring peoples? That’s a question best left to historians, philosophers, and anthropologists.” The statement follows one from the US Government last year saying there was no evidence any life exists outside our planet. But that debate will continue following recent revelations by an ex-CIA agent that the famous Roswell incident really did involve “a craft that did not come from this planet”. A recent poll showed more than a third of Americans believe UFOs exist.

• Batman could fly using his specially-designed bat wing-like cape but the landing would probably kill him. That’s reportedly the conclusion of four students at the University of Leicester in the UK who, taking Christian Bale’s rigid wings in the film Batman Begins as a starting point, have worked out that the landing impact would likely be around 80 kph, similar to being hit by a car. Best stick to the Batmobile, Batman!

• They make regular appearances on Funniest Home Videos and have had more than one viral hit on the internet. Now comes the film festival dedicated to funny videos of…cats. The Internet Cat Video Film Festival will take place in the US city of Minneapolis on 30th August. Nominations for what you think are the funniest videos are now open.

• A Spanish village has been painted blue for the premiere of the new Smurfs movie. Homes, shops and even a church have reportedly been daubed in the color in the village of Juzcar in southern Spain - selected by Sony as the site for the film’s world premiere. Locals are hoping for a tourist boom but how long the color remains on the buildings at this stage is unknown.

• Cicada icecream is now off the menu. A shop in Missouri in the US starting selling icecream containing cicadas recently (they were dewinged and boiled before being coated in brown sugar and chocolate) but has reportedly now decided to pull them off the menu after concerns were raised about their inclusion by health authorities. No apparent concerns among consumers, however - the first vats of the icecream had apparently sold out in just a few hours.

• Conspiracy or simple mistake? The Australian Department of Defence have reportedly admitted that its files on UFO sightings - dubbed the X-Files, after the TV series - have been largely lost or destroyed. The admission came after the Sydney Morning Herald lodged an freedom of information request with the department. The defence force no longer takes reports of UFOs. Conspiracy theorists enjoy!

• Britain’s medieval peasants were twice as wealthy as people living in the world’s poorest countries today, according to the findings of new research. A team at the University of Warwick has put the average income in the late Middle Ages, expressed in 1990 dollars, at around $US1,000 compared with only $US249 in Zaire, $US479 in Burundi and $US514 in Niger. The team found that even on the eve of the Black Death, which killed thousands when it first struck in 1348-49, incomes were more than $US800 per capita.

• They’re the words and phrases we love to hate. According to The Marist Poll in the US, “whatever” is the most annoying word or phrase used in conversation today with 39 per cent of the respondents putting it top of their list for the second year in a row. “Like”, as in “like wow”, comes a close second with 28 per cent followed by “you know what I mean” (15 per cent), “to tell you the truth” (10 per cent), and “actually” (five per cent).

• It’s a find worthy of Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, and this time it’s contained in the eyes the Mona Lisa. An Italian researcher has reportedly claimed to have found tiny letters in the famous painting’s eyes which he believes may reveal the identity of the woman whose portrait Leonardo Da Vinci painted. According to Silvano Vinceti the letters are invisible to the naked eye but high resolution imaging shows that the painting’s right pupil contains the letters LV, for Leonardo da Vinci, and the left pupil the letters B or S or the initials CE, possibly letters corresponding the name of the sitter. The find could cast into doubt that commonly held belief that the woman is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant. Vinceti, meanwhile, plans to announce his theories next month.