Weird Universe Blog — February 17, 2025
Moisturizing Denim
Denim company Soorty has come out with a product they call "Collagen Denim" which will moisturize your skin as you wear the jeans. Info from SourcingJournal.com:Collagen Denim uses Umorfil technology, a state-of-the-art material that upcycles food waste into fabrics with skin-friendly properties. The fabric is enriched with collagen peptide amino acid derived from wasted fish scales, a byproduct of the seafood industry. Known for their moisturizing and soothing properties, the peptides enhance the fabric’s potential to support skin hydration.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 17, 2025 -
Comments (2)
Category: Denim | Clothing
Feeding Fingers: “Model Lives and Fallen Leaves”
With a hat tip to Warren Ellis.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 17, 2025 -
Comments (0)
Category: Music | Surrealism | Twenty-first Century
February 16, 2025
Rent Elderly People
A service that allows one to rent elderly people in order to "access senior-only discounts, early access to events, or priority service."The site is a joke, but it's not a bad idea. Many supermarkets offer senior days once a month where seniors get a 10 or 15% discount on top of all other savings. So it would be worthwhile to have a senior do your shopping for you.
I know it's a joke because the web design company AE Studio takes credit for it on their "skunkworks" page.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Feb 16, 2025 -
Comments (4)
Category: Elderly and Seniors | Satire | Strange Websites
Special Receptacle for Used Chewing Gum
Full patent here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Feb 16, 2025 -
Comments (4)
Category: Hygiene | Inventions | Patents | Junk Food | 1940s
February 15, 2025
A typewriter for people who don’t know how to read
In its Apr 20, 1972 issue, New Scientist magazine drew attention to Mildred Olsen's unusual invention (Patent No. 3,501,849):The Olsen invention is intended to help illiterates learn typing. (Why we need illiterate typists the patent doesn't explain.) It divides the keys of a typewriter keyboard into eight sectors, each including several individual keys. Each sector has a different colour. The would-be typist wears coloured rings on her fingers and watches a visual indicator, which shows a colour either with or without an arrow. Where there is no arrow, the typist presses her finger with the associated colour directly downwards. Where there is an arrow, the typist first moves the correct colour finger up, down or along one key in the direction of the arrow.
I think New Scientist was being overly harsh. In the patent itself, Olsen explained that she believed her invention could help students learn to read, as they simultaneously grew familiar with using a typewriter. I can't find any more info about her invention, but I'd be curious to know how students responded to it.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 15, 2025 -
Comments (1)
Category: Technology | Patents | 1970s
Otyken: Khan Blues
Siberian pop music. These gals are awesome and a little scary.Many more videos on YouTube under their band name.
Their Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 15, 2025 -
Comments (1)
Category: Music | Indigenous Cultures | Russia
February 14, 2025
The Perfect Rose Case
Technical Sergeant Valentine Browne Lawless was shot down over Linz, Austria in October 1944. He left behind a will revealing that, as his first name suggested, he had a romantic streak.He left the bulk of his small estate (worth $3600, or around $50,000 in today's money) to one of his brothers for a "special purpose." He detailed that special purpose in a separate latter. He wanted his brother to arrange to have "one perfect rose" anonymously sent every Saturday to Mildred Fitzpatrick, until the money ran out.
Valentine had worked with Mildred before the war, but the two had never dated. In fact, she barely knew who he was. He had fallen in love with her from afar, and because he was extremely shy he had never told her about his feelings. Valentine explained to his brother:
My idea is to furnish the girl with the pleasure of receiving a rose, not have her think a lot of me because I sent it to her...
I love her very much and would like to be the type of person that could make her love me and marry me and be able to support and provide her with those things which it is such a pleasure to give to anyone you love.
But as I am not a personality that is likely to be successful socially or financially, I must make this request.
I love her very much and would like to be the type of person that could make her love me and marry me and be able to support and provide her with those things which it is such a pleasure to give to anyone you love.
But as I am not a personality that is likely to be successful socially or financially, I must make this request.
Unfortunately, Valentine's romantic gesture turned out to be in vain. A few roses were sent, but the deliveries soon stopped, for two reasons.
First, Valentine's other siblings successfully challenged the will, on the grounds that the rose deliveries were detailed in a separate letter, not in the will itself. Therefore, the will had failed to specify the "special purpose". The case became known as the "perfect rose case," and the court ended up splitting Valentine's estate between his sister, two brothers, five nephews, and a niece.
Second, Mildred didn't want the roses. She really didn't want them. She was married, with a daughter, and found the publicity deeply embarrassing. She ended up suing the Hearst Corporation for publicizing the case and for describing Valentine as her "suitor" even though she barely knew him. She lost the case, but her feelings were clear. So, no more roses.
San Francisco Examiner - June 20, 1948
click to enlarge
Winston Salem Journal - Aug 8, 1947
Posted By: Alex - Fri Feb 14, 2025 -
Comments (1)
Category: Lawsuits | Inheritance and Wills | 1940s | Love & Romance
Happy Valentine’s Day 2025!
Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 14, 2025 -
Comments (0)
Category: Anthropomorphism | Holidays | Surrealism | Love & Romance
February 13, 2025
The Cow Illusion
The image below shows a cow, but most people struggle to see it without help from an explanatory image (which is below in extended). Once you see it, it's clear as day.Source: The Ape That Spoke: Language and the Evolution of the Human Mind by John McCrone. (via Futility Closet)
More in extended >>
Posted By: Alex - Thu Feb 13, 2025 -
Comments (3)
Category: Puzzles | Eyes and Vision
AWOL Through Sleepwalking
Posted By: Paul - Thu Feb 13, 2025 -
Comments (0)
Category: Military | Royalty | Sleep and Dreams | 1920s | United Kingdom | Anomie, Exhaustion, and General Malaise
