Weird News

Some high roller just dropped a fortune and a half to be one of two people who will fly up into space next month alongside the Bezos brothers ... all for a quick 11-minute trip!

Blue Origin auctioned off the third seat of the manned-voyage that's set to go down in late July -- the first of its kind for the company -- and they're saying the winning bid went to somebody who dropped ... wait for it ... a whopping $28 MILLION for the opportunity.

The sale closed Saturday, and it reportedly follows a month of bidding wars that didn't start getting into stupid rich territory until this past week ... when Jeff announced he'd be one of the four people going up there, with none other than his own brother, Mark, as person #2.

Whoever spent this absurd amount hasn't been revealed just yet -- but their identity is expected to surface closer to the launch date. The fourth passenger will also be revealed in the near future -- although it's unclear what the criteria is for whoever gets picked.

Remember, Jeff announced Monday that he himself would be going up for BO's maiden voyage with people inside ... putting his ass on the line, and kinda roping his bro in by extension.

We know we've said this before, but it's worth stating again ... what they're essentially doing is shooting themselves up in a rocket, which will then propel a separate capsule even higher up to the point that it breaks the stratosphere and technically reaches "space."

All in all, they'll be some 62 miles above ground -- and it'll take about 10 minutes or so to get there. Once they're above the Earth, they'll take a quick gander around, soak in the scene ... and then descend back down. Bottom line ... it's a sightseeing expedition.

NBC's competition show "Ultimate Slip 'N Slide" almost had to change the title to "Run 'N Don't Shart" ... after multiple crew members came down with a serious case of diarrhea.

So get this ... the workers reportedly came down with bubble guts on the heels of at least one person on set testing positive earlier this month for giardia -- an intestinal infection caused by a parasite.

The crew was filming in the San Fernando Valley before production was shut down indefinitely. According to The Wrap, things were so bad, some crew members collapsed in pain, while others raced into port-o-potties.

A source close to production confirmed to TMZ ... a number of people reported gastrointestinal symptoms and upset stomachs. We're told it's unclear exactly how many, but it was enough to halt production.

Our sources say the studio paused production on June 2 when it was made aware of the giardia case, and, in coordination with various health departments ... production worked with an environmental lab to test the water on location.

We're told the pond, slide pool, water truck and restroom sinks all tested negative, but a positive test came back on Thursday. They had been shooting for 7 weeks with one week left to go. Btw, we're told the hosts, Bobby Moynihan and Ron Funches, are fine.

A rep for Universal Television Alternative Studios, the production company behind the NBC show, tells TMZ ... the health and safety of everyone on its set is its number one priority, so out of an abundance of caution it has made the decision to stop production at the current location. They're trying to figure out where and when to complete the shoot.

Big album launches are nothing new, but Migos is redefining big by hitting 4 major cities -- all at the same time -- to promote its new record.

Quavo, Offset and Takeoff are slated to have a simultaneous hologram appearance Friday at 3 PM PT to talk about "Culture III" ... the highly-anticipated album they just dropped. They'll appear in life-size fashion as a 4K interactive hologram.

The group will physically be live from a studio in Atlanta, and they'll be beamed to holoportation machines at Underground Atlanta, crypto-art community BitBasel in Miami, Drai's Beachclub in Las Vegas and the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

If the hologram technology sounds familiar it's because it's similar to the one Diddy used back in April to show up from Miami at his son Christian Combs' 23rd birthday bash in L.A.

PORTL, an L.A.-based startup, is pulling this off for Migos ... and considers it the world's first and only single-passenger holoportation machine. It ain't cheap either -- costs around $60k. No biggie for Migos, but slightly over budget for the average bar mitzvah.

The greatest show on Earth is in the sky above it in the form of the year's first solar eclipse -- and the "Ring of Fire" is pretty awesome to see.

The solar eclipse -- when the moon passes directly between the sun and the Earth to create a so-called "Ring of Fire" effect -- started early Thursday morning. The best views are in Canada, from north of the Great Lakes to northeastern Canada, on up to the Arctic Ocean.

It later passed over the North Pole before ending in northeastern Siberia.

NASA said other countries in the Northern Hemisphere -- like the UK and Ireland -- were also able to see a partial eclipse, but only saw a fingernail-shaped shadow.

Some parts of the U.S. ... including northern Alaska, the southeast, Midwest and northeast caught a glimpse too. Although, most Americans didn't get the full "Ring of Fire" effect ... it still looked pretty badass.

For instance, one of the coolest shots of the eclipse came out of the NY area with the Statue of the Liberty in the foreground. Wow!

If you missed this eclipse, don't fret. There will be another one on November 19 -- a partial eclipse of the moon viewable in North America and Hawaii.

While the East Coast is dealing with the cicada plague, some L.A. towns are dealing with their own shrieking nightmare ... hundreds of peacocks running amok!!!

The beautiful-until-they're-in-your-backyard birds are delivering sleepless nights for folks in the L.A. County cities of Arcadia, Pasadena and San Marino. If you haven't had the pleasure ... peacocks reliably sound off at dawn with a noise so piercing, some neighbors described it as babies being tortured ... next to a very large microphone.

The birds -- which often travel in packs -- are everywhere, from sidewalks and streets to yards and roofs ... and they're damaging cars and yards.

They've been roaming the towns since a pair were brought back from India in the 19th century by a wealthy man named Lucky Baldwin. It's unclear exactly how many birds are in the area now, but their numbers have grown exponentially during the pandemic.

Things are so out of control, neighbors have reportedly gotten into heated arguments over how to deal with the birds.

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors is trying to get a handle on this ... beginning with drafting an ordinance that would prohibit feeding the peacocks.

President Biden kept his cool while having every right in the world to bug out ... this as a creepy-crawler tried making itself at home smack dab on his head!

46 was at Joint Base Andrews Wednesday AM ahead of his international trip to Europe -- where he's slated to meet with other world leaders, including Vladimir Putin -- and before takeoff ... the guy had to play defense against a freakin' cicada, brushing it off his neck.

The gross-out moment was caught on camera as JB talked to one of the men in uniform -- as was Biden's grossed-out face after he flicked the little bastard onto the ground ... where it belongs.

Joe trotted over to the press afterward and confirmed ... cicadas were around, and that he'd just taken care of one personally. His warning did NOT go unheeded -- as the folks following him around had to deal as well. Reports say the press plane was chock-full of cicadas.

Apparently, a swarm of the insects found their way into the engine area of the aircraft ... and actually caused a delay Tuesday night before they could hit the skies.

These buggers are all over D.C. ... CNN's Manu Raju had to fend for himself during a live shot from Capitol Hill. He reacted a little more frantically than ol' Joey here did.

A Texas mom's social experiment ended up with her facing criminal charges after she successfully infiltrated a middle school disguised as her 13-year-old daughter.

The lady's name is Casey Garcia ... a 30-year-old who's got a 7th grader attending Garcia-Enriquez Middle School near El Paso ... whose security process she wanted to test by going "undercover" as a student ... just to see how far she could get without being caught.

Garcia recorded her experience and posted the footage on YouTube, TikTok and other social media platforms -- which have taken off and gone viral. It's pretty crazy ... she does a full incognito attempt, undergoing a makeup routine and a wardrobe change to pull it off.

Sure enough, she does kinda resemble a middle schooler -- granted, the face mask she had to wear certainly helped. Still, she made it through about 85% of the school day undetected.

Garcia is seen walking through the halls, interacting with faculty, sitting in class listening to lectures, and even eating lunch at one point ... and no one seems to notice she's an adult. Eventually, the jig was up ... somebody called her out and reported her to the principal.

She went willingly -- and even though she seemed to think it was NBD ... the administration thought differently, getting the police involved who busted her for falsifying records and for trespassing. The incident happened Tuesday, but she wasn't booked until this past Friday.

Again, the whole point of doing this was to show that the school was a little too lax when it came to vetting students ... especially as kids start heading back to campus in person.

Of course, people were concerned Garcia could get in so easily ... which could pose bigger problems if it was someone who meant to do harm. The superintendent reportedly sent a note to parents saying they were reviewing and revamping their security measures.

If this sounds like something straight out of a movie, that's because it kinda is. Drew Barrymore did something similar in "Never Been Kissed" -- except that was high school.

The U.S. government is set to release an unclassified report on UFOs for the first time ever, and while intelligence officials reportedly found no evidence these mysterious, unexplained flying objects are alien spacecraft ... it doesn't discount it either.

According to reports ... the upcoming UFO report -- expected to be delivered to Congress sometime before June 25 -- doesn't completely rule out the possibility that UFOs encountered by Navy pilots in recent years are aliens ... it's just that there's no solid proof.

Instead, the report is expected to confirm that these objects are NOT top-secret American technology ... but could potentially be experimental or hypersonic aircraft of other countries that we have some issues with -- like Russia and China.

Here's the problem ... Navy pilots have seen objects in the air do things that defy any technology known to man. For example, there are images on radar showing spherical objects that have no wings, no engines, no emissions, and they operate in ways that defy physics and gravity.

Navy pilots saw an object at 80,000 feet careen to 20,000 feet in a second-and-a-half. Some of these objects appear to submerge in the ocean, yet submarines found no traces of debris.

Pressure has been mounting for more transparency from the U.S. government about UFOs ever since the Pentagon confirmed the existence of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) back in April.

This has led politicians like Sen. Martin Heinrich and Sen. Marco Rubio to call for more investigating, with Rubio going as far as to say UFOs pose a risk to our national security.

The upcoming report seems like a starting point, but according to outlets like the NY Times ... there's still no explanation from intelligence officials on how these UFOs are able to accelerate and maneuver like they do.

Weddings in India are hardcore, 'cause even a bride's death didn't kill the wedding day vibes -- the groom just married the woman who was going to be his sister-in-law ... on the spot!

The strange tale played out when a bride, identified only as Surbhi, reportedly collapsed and died of a heart attack just as the ceremony kicked off last week, and she exchanged traditional garlands with her hubby-to-be, Mangesh Kumar.

Sadly, Surbhi was declared dead at the scene. Now, this would normally put a halt to most, if not all, wedding ceremonies. But in this case, the bride and groom's families reportedly huddled up and came up with a solution -- Surbhi's family offered up her sister, Nisha.

When the wedding resumed ... the dead bride's body was taken to another room. 😑

Nisha and Surbhi's bro told the Times of India, "It was a bizarre situation as the wedding of my younger sister took place while the dead body of my other sister was laying in another room."

So, why'd the wedding continue? The bride's mother reportedly pled for the shindig to go on as planned. The groom's family reportedly would have been expecting a dowry.

Millennia-old human remains have been discovered mere feet from Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's estate ... and all signs point to them being early inhabitants of the area -- we mean the bones, not Meghan and Harry.

The Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office confirmed some veeeeerrrrry old bones were recently found buried on a neighboring property next to the couple's Montecito home ... this while construction crews were busy working on a landscaping gig.

The bones were buried three feet under the earth, and at this point ... it's suspected they might belong to a young indigenous person, perhaps someone from the Chumash tribe -- which has ties to the Santa Barbara area dating back thousands of years.

Authorities actually think the remains may be 11,000 years old. So yeah, we're talking way before any Euros came washing up onshore and wreaking havoc.

The Sheriff's Dept. notes they're consulting forensic anthropologists to make sure what they think it is is actually right ... which, if true, could potentially turn into a good old-fashioned fossil dig. The Chumash people are also being looped in, it seems, but have yet to comment.

Casey Anthony apparently had an ugly run-in with a woman she's been beefing with for a long time over a man they both previously dated ... this according to West Palm Beach PD.

The formerly accused and acquitted child killer appears to have called the police this weekend while out at a bar in town called O'Shea's Irish Pub ... where she told cops she'd had a heated argument with an archnemesis.

Per the police report, obtained by TMZ, Casey told officers the other lady -- who's identified as Thelma Moya -- was arguing with her at the bar and spilled a drink on Casey's leg when things escalated.

The report notes that the call came in as someone throwing a drink in another person's face. Casey went on to tell cops this was a longstanding feud because she and Moya once dated the same guy ... at the same time. No word on who the lucky fella is.

Anyway, the officer says he told Casey about how to go about filing a restraining order ... but she turned down that option, and simply wanted this alleged altercation documented. It doesn't appear Moya was arrested, or that she was even on the scene when the police arrived.

As for Casey ... looks like she's holding down the fort at O'Shea's. She was spotted at the exact same place a few years ago, chatting up the regulars.

A Missouri family's emotions had to be through the roof this weekend ... this after a car came smashing down through their actual roof, all thanks to some stupid teens.

Two high schoolers -- who had reportedly just come from a graduation party -- somehow lost control of their vehicle very early Sunday morning while cruising a street near Eureka, MO ... and came toppling down a hill, only to come to a crashing halt via somebody's house.

Yep ... their car literally torpedoed through the ceiling of a family home -- and the car landed mere feet away from where the mister and missus were sleeping in the master bedroom.

According to reports ... the 2 people in the car were actually able to crawl out of the wreck and walk out the front door, seemingly unscathed. And yes, thankfully the couple -- who had at least a couple of kids in the house too, BTW -- were miraculously left unharmed as well.

The local fire department was called ... which captured these gnarly photos of the wreckage.

No word on *how* exactly the presumed grads ended up barreling down an embankment this badly in the first place -- but ya gotta figure the local authorities are investigating, and looking into whether alcohol or drugs might've played a role.

A Florida high school is getting dogged for editing yearbook photos of female students whose outfits were deemed too revealing ... and now, they're having to face the music.

Bartram Trail High in St. Johns County caused utter outrage among dozens of families who realized their daughters' yearbook headshots had been horrendously altered after the fact ... all in an apparent attempt to cover up their upper chests and/or slightly exposed cleavage.

An investigation undertaken by News4Jax revealed that a whopping 80 of these yearbook photos had been edited in post, with what appears to be Photoshop. And, yes, you guessed it ... all of the changed photos are from girls. Not a single boy's pic was changed.

It's interesting ... because there are reportedly several guys at the school who are featured in the yearbook wearing skimpy Speedos, but none of those photos were touched up.

News4Jax reports that once the yearbooks were out -- and purchased by scores of students, including many whose photos were changed -- the kids themselves saw their pics had been butchered ... causing their folks to demand answers, not to mention $100 refunds.

Turns out, the yearbook coordinator is the one who made the call for the cover-up ... this per the St. Johns County School District, which confirmed their HS had, in fact, cloaked what they considered scantily-clad young women, some of whom were as young as 14.

Their rationale ... instead of nixing these girls' photos from the yearbook altogether for violating the school's dress code -- what would normally be their regular practice, they say -- officials wanted to try and include everyone this year, so they did some digital scrubbing.

The weird thing is that some of these students claim they'd gotten mixed messaging on their outfits -- including the same ones they wore for picture day. One student claims she wore the same top another day on campus, asked if it was okay ... and was given the a-OK.

As a result, BTHS now says parents who are upset can get their money back if they want -- they just gotta return the yearbooks they bought, which aren't cheap, fully intact.

A teenager who'd apparently just given birth left her kid with a woman who was grubbing at a New Jersey restaurant -- but, luckily, the baby will get a good home after all.

This happened Wednesday in Jersey City, where Alease Scott and her boyfriend, Walter, were having lunch at a joint called El Patron ... when out of nowhere, this teen girl -- who's said to be just 14 years old -- wanders in somewhat cloaked, carrying a newborn in her arms.

In CCTV footage provided by the restaurant owners, you see the teen walk up to the counter to seemingly ask something, and then sits down at a table ... which is when Scott checks in.

She goes over to the young mother and they appear to have a brief conversation, before the girl finally hands her baby over to Scott who then takes the child, a girl, back to her table as she rocks her. The teenager comes over herself for a bit, but then abruptly walks out ... seemingly fleeing.

Scott later told the authorities that the teen mom was asking for help, and that Scott -- who's trained in CPR and first aid -- asked if she could check the baby's vitals ... which the mother allowed.

Sure enough, the police were called ... and a flock of first-responders showed up to the scene -- even providing oxygen to the baby as she appeared to be having trouble breathing. Reports say the infant also still had some of her umbilical cord attached.

A handwritten letter featuring Albert Einstein's famous theory of special relativity has sold for a bundle at auction -- fetching a 7-figure amount!!!

The one-page note was written by Einstein in 1946, and sent to fellow physicist Ludwik Silberstein ... who's said to have doubted AE's theories. Translated from German, the part about kinetic energy reads, "Your question can be answered from the E = mc2 formula, without any erudition." Reports say this is the 4th time Albert had mentioned the theory on paper, and it's supposedly the only one made available through a private collection.

It was put up for grabs last week by Boston-based auction house, RR Auction, which says it eventually sold for a cool $1.2 million ... this after an all-out bidding war between five parties that eventually became a two-horse race once it started creeping past the $700k mark.

On Thursday, the sale closed -- with one bidder prevailing ... but they're staying anonymous, only being ID'd as a document collector. A rich one at that, too.

A crazy post-crash site has a lot of people reminiscing on early 2000s horror -- because it looks eerily similar to a killer moment from the 'Final Destination' franchise.

A guy named Aaron Cox posted a video showing a giant wood log piercing the windshield of a white van, pulled over behind a transport truck on a freeway ... which of course, is ripped right out of "Final Destination 2," as any terrified viewer who remembers will tell you.

There's not a whole lot of context -- like where, when or what happened next -- but it's kinda funny ... 'cause the guy filming, presumably Aaron, literally mentions 'FD' as he captures the wreckage.

You don't see any blood inside of the van, which we think means (hopefully) nobody was seriously injured. Weirdly enough, the freakin' radio is still playing inside, something that seems to indicate it looks worse than it actually was.

Still, the fact that life imitated art here to a T is uncanny.

If you haven't seen the movie -- it follows the same beats as the OG ... starting with a mass death sitch where a bunch of people die from one incident (in this case, a highway pile-up that kicks off with the logs), which gets prevented by a character having a premonition ... only for the Grim Reaper himself to circle back to everyone who cheated death.

Spoiler alert ... everyone dies later in cool death scenes as the movie goes along -- but that's beside the point.

One last factoid about this -- "Final Destination 2" has scarred so many who watched it that this exact joke was made on none other than TikTok itself by content creator PatD Lucky ... who joked about being caught behind a big rig carrying a massive load of pipes, and immediately wanting to get out of the way out of fear of facing Officer Burke's fate.