Spider Report https://spiderreport.com Keeping the obscure in the public realm. en-us The first new wild cat species in a century reached science as a roadside kitten. No one knows how many live in the wild. https://spiderreport.com/story/tilcayo-new-cat-species/ https://spiderreport.com/story/tilcayo-new-cat-species/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT Curiosities [DOCUMENTED] Leopardus tilcayo, a spotted cat smaller than a house cat, was identified through genome analysis of an animal living in a Bolivian sanctuary since 2017. Local people already had a name for it. One unexplained event in a dark-matter detector a mile underground has set off a scramble of competing explanations https://spiderreport.com/story/lz-dark-matter-single-event/ https://spiderreport.com/story/lz-dark-matter-single-event/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT Strange Science [UNRESOLVED] The LZ experiment says it cannot explain a single particle interaction with known sources, and is careful not to call it dark matter. Theorists have already proposed more than a dozen ways it could be. On unexplored Indian Ocean seamounts, researchers found 149 species new to science and a seabed scattered with shark teeth https://spiderreport.com/story/indian-ocean-seamounts-new-species/ https://spiderreport.com/story/indian-ocean-seamounts-new-species/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT Strange Science [DOCUMENTED] At one site, dubbed the Shark Tooth Graveyard, the team recovered about a thousand teeth spanning more than 22 million years. An 1836 museum specimen gives the Himalayan pangolin its name back, 189 years after it was first described https://spiderreport.com/story/himalayan-pangolin-manis-aurita/ https://spiderreport.com/story/himalayan-pangolin-manis-aurita/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT Strange Science [DOCUMENTED] DNA from the skin a British naturalist shipped from Kathmandu shows a pangolin long lumped in with the Chinese pangolin is its own species. The global conservation authority has not yet weighed in. The board created to fast-track sales of unneeded federal buildings shuts down in December. Nine of its 11 latest picks are still unsold. https://spiderreport.com/story/fasta-federal-property-disposal/ https://spiderreport.com/story/fasta-federal-property-disposal/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT Under the Surface [DOCUMENTED] A September 21 GAO report on the 2016 Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act finds 14 of 23 approved properties disposed of so far, most from the first round, and unclear timelines for the rest. The CIA can still withhold parts of its Mexico City station history. One line on a government webpage explains why. https://spiderreport.com/story/cia-mexico-city-station-history/ https://spiderreport.com/story/cia-mexico-city-station-history/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT Intelligence [DOCUMENTED] A National Security Archive briefing book says long-redacted excerpts of the station's three-volume internal history are among the last secrets left in the JFK assassination records. The Pentagon's UAP office is still investigating a Navy report of about 100 airborne objects off Virginia https://spiderreport.com/story/aaro-virginia-maritime-case/ https://spiderreport.com/story/aaro-virginia-maritime-case/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT UAP / Space [UNRESOLVED] The case appears in one paragraph of AARO's fiscal 2025 annual report, released in July 2026 with data that ends in May 2025. The 9/11 Commission's summary of pre-attack presidential briefings is now public. Its interviews with Clinton and Gore are not. https://spiderreport.com/story/911-pdb-summary-declassified/ https://spiderreport.com/story/911-pdb-summary-declassified/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT Archives [DOCUMENTED] The September 11 release ended nearly two decades of requests from the Public Interest Declassification Board. The list of released interview records stops short of the two officials the board had named first.