Weird Universe Blog — September 26, 2024

Dis-Gorilla



Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 26, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Animals | Fads | Fey, Twee, Whimsical, Naive and Sadsack | Music | 1970s

September 25, 2024

Neutron Radiation Wall

Physicist Samuel T. Cohen is credited with inventing the neutron bomb — a nuclear weapon designed to minimize blast damage but maximize the release of radiation, so that it would kill people but preserve infrastructure.

Cohen later came up with the idea of a neutron radiation wall. This would be a wall of ionizing radiation that would kill anyone who passed through it. He suggested that Israel could build a neutron radiation wall along its border to protect itself from invasion.

He described how this wall would work in a March 1984 article in Reason magazine:

What I am suggesting is the construction of a border barrier whose most effective component is an extremely intense field of nuclear radiation (produced by the operation of underground nuclear reactors), sharply confined to the barrier zone, which practically guarantees the death of anyone attempting to breach the barrier...

Briefly, this is how such a barrier scheme would work:

During peacetime, the reactors (employed underground, for protection and safety) are operated on a continual basis, as are our power reactors. The neutrons produced by the fission reactions escape into a solution containing an element that, upon absorbing the neutrons, becomes highly radioactive and emits gamma rays (very high energy X-rays) at extremely high intensity. The radioactive solution is then passed into a series of pipes running along the barrier length in conjunction with conventional obstacle components—mines, Dragon's Teeth, tank traps, barbed wire, etc. To the rear of the pipes and obstacle belts is a system of conventional defensive fortifications. (The obstacles, the firepower from the fortifications, and tactical air power all serve to impede the rate of advance of the attacker, increasing the attacker's exposure to the gamma radiation. Vice versa, by quickly incapacitating the attacker, the radiation serves to make it difficult, or even impossible, for the attacker to remove the obstacles and assault the fortifications.) The width of the entire defensive system need be no more than a few miles.

The gamma ray field in the immediate vicinity of the obstacle zone readily can be sufficiently intense that several minutes' exposure will produce incapacitation and ultimately death. However, at a distance of, say, 1,000 yards from the pipes, the radiation intensity is so reduced that people are perfectly safe. In fact, a person could stand all day at this distance without putting himself in jeopardy.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Sep 25, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters | 1980s | Weapons

The Wizard’s Apprentice

This is better than the famous Mickey Mouse version because it features a pretty girl.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 25, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Movies | Music | Supernatural, Occult, Paranormal | 1930s

September 24, 2024

Fran the Formfit Gal

The premise of corporate mascot Fran is that she traveled the world, wowing people everywhere with her Formfit underwear.

Photoplay - Oct 1955



Look - Sep 20, 1955



Photoplay - Dec 1955



Coronet - May 1955

Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 24, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Advertising | Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings | Underwear | 1950s

Miss General Electric

In 2017, Alex reported on "Miss Food Freezer," who also held the title of "Miss General Electric." I thought I'd try to find other winners of the latter title. But references are few and far between.

The earliest citation is 1925; the latest, 1968.

I am not sure about "Miss General Electric Torch" being the same honor.








Miss General Electric Torch and Miss Bell Torch presenting $507,412 and $630,943 to the United Fund. Two women holding a sign.


Posted By: Paul - Tue Sep 24, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests | Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues | Technology | Appliances | Twentieth Century

September 23, 2024

Neck-Exercising Device

Patent No. 4,832,333



Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 23, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Exercise and Fitness | Patents | 1980s

Follies of the Madmen #606

Insane adult co-opts kids in his cereal scheme.


Posted By: Paul - Mon Sep 23, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Advertising | Cereal | Cartoons | 1960s | Mental Health and Insanity

September 22, 2024

Extended Credentials

Identity theft as art. Jay Lee Jaroslav created 31 fictitious identities, backed up by official documentation such as birth certificates and social security numbers. He used the info of individuals who had died as infants as the basis for constructing these identities. To make this all seem more art-like, he turned the 31 applications for birth certificates into paintings.

He never used these identities to do anything illegal. His point seemed to be to demonstrate that it could be done.

More info: jayleejaroslav.wordpress.com

Umbrella - May 1979



Jaroslav's birth-certificate application paintings on display

Posted By: Alex - Sun Sep 22, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Art | Identity Mistakes, Thefts and Mix-ups

September 21, 2024

Miss National Bureau of Standards

The earliest example I can find of a young woman being named 'Miss National Bureau of Standards' is in 1968. The contest continued at least until the mid-1970s.

The responsibility of Miss NBS was to "help to promote the standards employee benefit association membership drive, and assist in publicizing other functions."

Scranton Times-Tribune - Nov 5, 1967



Hartford Courant - Jan 31, 1971



Tampa Tribune - Mar 10, 1974

Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 21, 2024 - Comments (4)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests

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All original content in posts is Copyright © 2016 by the author of the post, which is usually either Alex Boese ("Alex"), Paul Di Filippo ("Paul"), or Chuck Shepherd ("Chuck"). All rights reserved. The banner illustration at the top of this page is Copyright © 2008 by Rick Altergott.

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