Red mercury has been held in mystical regard for centuries: From allegedly being buried with Egyptian royals in order to guarantee them an afterlife to the hushed reverence with which medieval alchemists spoke about it to cacophonous Internet pop up ads blaring about its panacea qualities.

Some modern incantations have the substance manifesting itself in vampire bat nests. Unintentionally comedic YouTube videos show a blob of supposed red mercury being repelled by garlic, attracted by gold, and showing no reflection.
In truth, there are no bat nests. The winged mammals instead cling to walls, rafters, and cave dwellings when needing to rest or sleep. Of more importance with regard to this topic, there also is no red mercury elixir. The only red-hued mercury is mercury sulphide, whose main use is in pottery decoration and to which no healing abilities are attributed.

While much less cool than pharaoh tombs or hypothetical vampire bat nests, Singer sewing machines have also been reported to house red mercury. The ridiculous rumor was apparently started by someone who found it a convenient avenue to unload his surplus sewing machines for 2,000 times their worth.

While usually associated with healing, red mercury tales have darker versions that tie it to nuclear weapons or bomb making. These began making the rounds when eastern European communism collapsed. This time of upheaval and uncertainty, combined with legitimate concern about what would become of nuclear stockpiles, led to wild speculation that red mercury was a necessary element to the weapons and that this destructive force about to be purloined by terrorist outfits or unleashed by a government desperate to stay in power. The rumor may have begun since red mercury is a nickname for a certain nuclear isotope. 

Terrorists have apparently tried to make the rumors come true. In 2015, Islamic State members were arrested after attempting to buy red mercury, though exactly what it is they were buying and what their plans were for it are unclear since the substance doesn’t exist.

Legend has it that on June 17, 1859, Santa Barbara had a most unwelcome visitor, namely a sudden scorching wind that was unprecedented in heat and consequences. Animals were slain, people were injured, and crops ruined, all in three hours. 

As described, the phenomenon seemed more worthy of Venus than Earth and was referred to as a simoom, that being the Arabic word for “a sudden, hot wind filled with sand.” Skeptoid’s Brian Dunning researched the tale and while delving into newspaper archives, found that the term was relatively common in the 19th Century. Maybe it’s one we should bring back, along with gullyfluff (assorted stuff in boys’ pockets) or hobbadehoy (roughly equitable to tween).

To be sure, hot, sudden winds are a reality on California coasts. The Santa Ana winds and their lesser-known cousin, the Sundowner – which frequent Santa Barbara – contribute to wildfires in the region. Dunning described the winds as extraordinarily dry and with gusts that rival a hurricane’s. He added, “The wind is usually hot since it gets heated on the way by adiabatic forces.” I’ll have to admit, that adjective was a new one for me. It had me scurrying to an online dictionary, where I learned it refers to a process or condition in which heat does not enter or leave the system.

Most sources for this tale cite a 1966 book entitled Goleta, the Good Land. The author, Walker Tompkins, apparently used only one source, which had been written nearly a century before and which was penned 10 years after this supposed extreme and localized heat wave. That source was a work published by the United States Coast Survey. Geography professor George Davidson served as an assistant surveyor on that trip, and contributed this passage: 

“At about 1 p.m., a blast of hot air from the northwest swept suddenly over the town and struck the inhabitants with terror. It was quickly followed by others. At 2 p.m. the thermometer exposed to the air rose to 133°, and continued at or near that point for nearly three hours, whilst the burning wind raised dense clouds of impalpable dust. No human being could withstand the heat. All betook themselves to their dwelling and carefully closed every door and window. Calves, rabbits, and birds were killed; trees were blighted; fruit was blasted and fell to the ground, burned only on one side; and gardens were ruined. A fisherman, in the channel in an open boat, came back with his arms badly blistered.”

Of note, Davidson at no point ever claimed to have made these observations himself. Nor has anyone else, it seems. UC-Santa Barbara’s Bill Norrington asked fellow geography professor Joel Michaelsen what he thought about Tompkins’ version of the tale, and was told, “I never found any outside source to validate Tompkins’ story, and I am highly skeptical of its veracity. I don’t doubt that strong hot, dry downslope winds could kick up lots of dust and produce very high temperatures – but 110°F – 115° at most. The 133° just isn’t physically reasonable, as it would require the creation of an extremely hot air mass somewhere to the northeast. And given Tompkins’ well-known tendency to mix liberal doses of fiction into his ‘histories,’ and I think you have a strong case for discounting this one.”

Indeed, Tompkins’ version includes such improbable specifics as birds falling dead from the sky. As to the supposed super-scorching temperatures, those are supported by no official measurement. 

It has plenty of company in that regard. Meteorologist Christopher Burt compiled a list of claimed extreme temperatures and rated them from 0 to 10 for veracity. He found little substantiation for figures like 136 degrees (1920s in Libya) or 134 (1930s in Death Valley). As to the supposed simoom, Burt bestowed but a single point on its likelihood. 

He wrote, “There is no record of who made this measurement or exactly where it was made in Santa Barbara. Some later sources say it was made on a U.S. coastal geo-survey vessel. IF that is the case then the temperature is not possible since the waters off Santa Barbara in June are never warmer than about 70°F and any wind blowing over the ocean would have its temperature modified by the cool water.”

No researcher has ever uncovered evidence of the event and no meteorologist, journalist, or scientist at the time considered it exceptional enough to make note of until 10 years later. Given what we know meteorology and considering the conspicuous lack of documentation, the 1859 simoom seems more hot air than hot wind.

There have been reports of children being raised by wild animals, mimicking them, and assuming a feral state since at least Romulus and Remus.  Such tales have made for good works like Tarzan and less memorable ones like Stalk the Wild Child, a 1970s made-for-television movie.

But while there have been rare cases of children spending significant time among packs, herds, or flocks, there are no confirmed instances of a child becoming feral or mimicking animal behavior as a result. Feral children may act in manner reminiscent of a wild animal but this is because of developmental deficiencies, neglect, abuse, or a combination of these.

When a child with developmental disabilities who has been abandoned is discovered, some prefer a fascinating narrative that his or her feral state is owed to having been raised by animals. Whichever animal the child’s behavior and vocals most resembles is the beast he or she is assumed to have been raised by.

Although wild animals sometimes accept the presence of people and might even protect a child, it is difficult to conclude if a youngster has ever been adopted, nurtured, or taken care of by critters for an extended period. The child at the center of these stories is incapable of speech or even communication so they can’t tell us if they lived among beasts. They may have been rescued near or around animals but there’s no way to tell if the wildlife had been their companions and for how long.

There is likely a different explanation for the discovered child’s behavior and it centers on cognitive development and parent-infant bonding. If a child, through developmental delays or neglect, has not learned to speak by age 5, they likely never will, save maybe a few grunts or terse utterings. Also, children who receive little or no nurturing during their formative years will seldom have satisfying personal relationships or normal interaction with others. In an article on a feral child who was rescued after being kept locked in a tiny windowless room for the first seven years of her life, psychologist Karen Armstrong explained that 80 percent of brain development occurs by the time a person is 5.

And without normal attachment to a caregiver early in life, problems may blossom later, such as behavioral issues, extreme anxiety, emotional detachment and lashing out. But these language and developmental shortcomings are owed to congenital or environmental conditions and are not the result of being raised by wolves, monkeys, or salamanders.

Feral children my engage in self-soothing behavior such as yelping, rocking their body, sucking their fists, or making repetitive action with an object. These may all occur in children with developmental disabilities and autism. The repetitive motion occurs in nearly all cases of feral children and is a manifestation of being denied nurturing and bonding early in life and is not the result of acting out a creature feature they observed over and over.

The idea of children spending years being raised by wildlife and mimicking their sounds and behaviors is a staple of the sensationalist press but one won’t find such documentation in anthropology journals.

The most recent alleged case was an Indian girl in April 2017 who was said to have lived with monkeys since birth. She was incapable of speech and acted as her supposed simian sidekicks would have. But a deeper investigation by mainstream journalists found that she was discovered alone on the side of a road and that there was no reason to believe the monkey tale. Hers was a heart-wrenching story of a physically and mentally disabled child being neglected and abandoned. The story of being raised in the wild was fabricated to sell papers.

Skeptoid’s Brian Dunning wrote about a confirmed case of a child being found after years in the wild and it lends credence to the idea of developmental delays and neglect being the determining factor in how feral children act.

In this instance, a healthy, eloquent girl without attachment issues lived in the forest for an extended period and later integrated into society and acted normally. She was a young Native American girl taken captive in Canada and transported to France as a slave. She escaped and, having been trained to live off the land, survived in the forests for before being recaptured and brought back into society.

There, she then learned to speak, read, and write French. Eventually, she led a normal, independent life. This indicates that feral children are afflicted with a developmental disability that has nothing to do with being raised by animals or living among them. Having been nurtured and given the chance to develop normally, the Indian child was more akin to Grizzly Adams than Mowgli.

We should always accept evidence arrived at using proper research and techniques even if we don’t care for the conclusions. When shown the proof, I embraced the idea that the War of the Worlds broadcast panic was mostly mythological, even though the idea of millions of impromptu Minutemen fending off an alien invasion was one of my favorite slices of Americana.

Recently, I also jettisoned another of my beloved legends – that Stradivarius violins will forever be without peer due to long-lost secrets and the impossibly high work ethic and pride of their creator. While high-class instruments, their reputation is more owed to exaggeration and expectation that acoustics and dynamics.

About 500 still exist and they are often paired with world-class violinists such as Itzhak Perlman or Joshua Bell. The latter played one to unsuspecting commuters in a subway terminal in an experiment to determine if beauty could be appreciated regardless of surroundings.

Brian Dunning at Skeptoid wrote the Stradivarius violins have been subjected to CAT scans, chemical analyses, and computer simulations to unearth the instrument’s elusive secrets. Musicians and scientists have puzzled over this fiddle riddle and conducted experiments to determine if the key lay in the wood, glue, shape, varnish, the way the violins were treated, or something else.

There has even been speculation that climate played a factor. Stradivarius plied his trade during a time of extraordinarily low sunspot activity, when European winters were colder than today. Dunning explained, “Trees grow more slowly in the cold, the rings are tighter, and the wood is more dense.”

Therefore, luthiers using the same type of wood today as Stradivarius did would be working with a less-dense material. Knowing this, scientist Francis Schwarze developed a fungal treatment for wood that increased its stiffness and made it comparable to the wood that Stradivarius held. Schwarze had a violinist play both a Stradivarius and a modern instruments, and a panel of experts thought the new violin had been made by the Italian legend. While this might seem to suggest that climate was the answer to the oft-pondered mystery, we will soon see that a more likely answer is that the Stradivarius rests more on reputation than results.

While opinion is involved when deciding if something is good, bad, or so-so, not everything is completely subjective. Three different persons could rank Twain, Dickens, and Poe, and reasonably arrive at three different orders. But musical instruments have quantitative aspects that are measurable – sound waves, pitch, frequency, and tone, all of which can be assessed and objectively identified.

A research team at a 2010 international violin competition did just that when they assembled six violins and 21 performers for a controlled test conducted by world-class musicians and sound scientists. The tested stringed instruments included three modern highest-quality violins, an 18^th Century Guarneri, and two Stradivariuses, one from 1700 and one from 1715.

The experiment was doubled blinded; neither the participants nor the researchers knew which violin was being played. Each violinist tried 10 pairings of instruments, playing each for one minute. Afterward, they identified which one they preferred. In a second test, violinists were given access to all six instruments for 20 minutes, then asked to evaluate which was the best and the worst in five categories: tone colors, playability, response, projection, and which one they’d want to own.

In the one-minute tests, the clear loser was the 1700 Stradivarius. The other five won their head-to-head matchups about half the time, but no one ever picked the earlier Stradivarius model. In the 20-minute evaluations, the five other instruments again all played .500 ball, with the earlier Stradivarius again finishing deep in the cellar.

This was just one test and perhaps another Stradivarius or two or 10 would have a performance worthy of the instrument’s iconic image. But based on this double-blind study by experts, it seems that the Stradivarius is comparable to other high-quality violins, or in some cases, even a bit beneath them. Much of its value, then, comes from its name, prestige, and historical relevance.

Preparing its annual ranking of U.S. colleges, Time inputted all the data to be considered and Yale came in third. The editors then decided to bump Yale to first because it was Yale. Time considered Yale’s name to be of enough value that a degree from there would be worth more than one from anywhere else. A similar mentality seems to have caused music aficionados to catapult the Stradivarius from an excellent instrument to one incapable of ever being matched.

In 1872, Capt. David Morehouse of the ship Dei Gratia found the Mary Celeste adrift in the Atlantic Ocean, in excellent shape but with nobody aboard. The Mary Celeste came with a rowboat capable of being rigged for sailing and it was gone.

Mary Celeste’s part-owner, Capt. Benjamin Briggs, was joined by his wife, infant daughter, and seven sailors when the group left from New York City for Genoa. With them were a liquid cargo of 1,701 wooden barrels of pure grain alcohol whose future mission was to fortify Italian wines.

The voyage was relatively uneventful according to Briggs’ log entries, and the group enjoyed ideal weather. There was a significant amount of water in the bilge and cabins of the ship when it was discovered, but this was consistent with a ship that had been sailing for at least 10 days with open hatches and an opened skylight.

Even in the 19^th Century, unfounded conspiracy theories could arise around a bizarre event. There were reasonable suspicions about insurance fraud or pirates, as well as more macabre ideas centering on a mass murder-suicide, then there were notions such as ghost ships, a slithering sea serpent, or a mini-rapture.

Investigators quickly dismissed the idea of a violent end on the Mary Celeste because of the ship’s pristine nature and because many valuables remained. Insurance fraud on the part of the owner was likewise ruled out due to lack of evidence.

Another idea was that the captain, family, and crew abandoned the Mary Celeste because of pump congestion and instrument malfunction. Since investigators found the pump disassembled on deck, they surmised the crew may have been attempting to decongest it.

Natural disasters proffered as explanations included a displaced iceberg or a seaquake. However, hydrographical evidence suggests that an iceberg drifting so far south was improbable, besides no other ships had reported seeing one. A seaquake was an unlikely culprit because of the lack of damage to t the ship and its cargo’s sound condition.

Some speculate that a becalmed Mary Celeste began drifting toward reefs of Santa Maria Island. This idea largely falls flat since, if the ship had been becalmed, all sails would have been set to catch any available breeze and the ship was found with many of its sails furled.

Skeptoid’s Brian Dunning makes a case for empty alcohol barrels being the key clue. Nine of the barrels were undamaged but empty. Those nine were encased in red oak, while the others made of white oak. Dunning wrote, “Of the species of wood sold as white oak, the majority have occluded pores. This makes the wood watertight, which is why white oak is used for wine barrels and other barrels intended to hold liquid. The pores in the wood of the 20 or so species of red oak, on the other hand, are open, allowing liquids to seep through the wood. Consequently, red oak barrels should only be used for dry goods. But for some reason the owner of the alcohol used nine of the wrong type of barrel.”

Eventually, these barrels would have become soaked through. Alcohol evaporates fairly rapidly, so the smell would have permeated the ship’s cargo hold. With just .005 percent of the barrels experiencing this seepage, they in all likelihood were buried beneath the white oak barrels and it would have been impossible to determine the cause of the odor.

In this hypothesis, the captain feared an explosion and put himself, his family, and his crew in the rowboat, where they met a watery demise. Probably not involving a slithering sea serpent.

If I’m remembering correctly, photographic memory refers to a supposed ability to recall nearly everything in precise detail – entire books, exact test questions from 15 years ago, every license plate you’ve ever seen. Its less famous cousin, eidetic memory, refers to being able to recall voluminous and minute details of a mental image.

Eidetic memory has been shown in controlled studies to sometimes exist in small children. But does anyone really possess photographic memory? There are some conditions whose characteristics include amazing feats of memory, but they stops short of being able to remember nearly anything that has ever happened to a person.

One category of amazing recall belongs to some people with savantism, a condition whereby a person has substantial limitations but can counter that with an almost superhuman skill in a specific area. Sometimes that area is memory.

Such persons are usually autistic with low IQs, along with having hampered motor skills, social abilities, and learning difficulties. But they may have a pronounced memory skill, the most common of which is calendar calculation, which is being able to instantly and accurately pronounce which day of the week any date in history occurred.

The second most common skill is an extremely prodigious recollection of items like encyclopedic publications, databases, and maybe even War and Peace. The best-known person with this ability was Kim Peek, the inspiration for Rain Man. Other skills may include instant mathematical calculation of large numbers or being able to reproduce works of art or photos with amazing precision. Artist Stephen Wiltshire, for example, has this ability. Other fantastic feats may include being able to forever reproduce a piece of music after hearing it once.

The above abilities are extremely rare, with only about 300 known cases worldwide. And the super skill is not always memory, and when it is memory, it is usually the ability to recall a specific thing, so this would fail to meet the definition of across-the-board photographic memory.

Even rarer than savantism is hyperthymesia, a condition that causes an overdeveloped autobiographical memory. Persons with hyperthymesia can remember nearly everything that has ever happened to them and can recall scenes in precise detail. They know what they saw and did, where they went, what was on the radio, how they felt that day. For example, they could accurately recite exact conversations they had about the 1976 presidential campaign.

However, this stunning ability still falls short of the supposed photographic memory threshold because they lack such abilities as being able to recall long strings of numbers or the word of every book they’ve read. According to Skeptoid’s Dunning, only about 30 persons have ever been confirmed to have hyperthymesia. The condition can be quite debilitating since those with it are unable to forget even if they want to. Anyone can have hurtful memories, but those with hyperthymesia recall exactly how they felt on their worst days and the pain stays fresh.

Beyond these categories, there are those who through repetition, practice, and mnemonic devices will build their memory and increase their ability to absorb information. This could include memorizing every person to ever serve in Congress or being able to recite the winner of every MLB pennant, batting championship, and ERA title (this was once my specialty).

However, this is distinct from photographic memory, where such abilities would be innate and the facts memorized instantly. A talent of such magnitude only exists with savants and those with hyperthymesia, and again, only within the prescribed limits mentioned earlier.

Eidetic memory – the ability to recall an image in perfect detail – is by contrast somewhat common in children. So far, now one has figured out why this proficiency exists in toddlers and preschoolers but is extinguished in adolescence. At least that’s what I remember hearing.