Weird Universe Blog — October 27, 2024
Likelihood of Paper Cuts
A recent article in the journal Physical Review E explores what kind of paper is most likely to give you paper cuts. The answer: dot-matrix paper. Followed by magazine pages.The likelihood of cutting has to do with the thickness of the paper. Too thin and the paper buckles instead of cutting. Too thick and it indents material rather than slicing it. There's a specific range in between too thick and too thin where the paper cuts.
For the purpose of their research, the authors created a "papermachete" which they used to cut apples, bananas, chicken, etc. (see image below).
The article itself ("Competition between slicing and buckling underlies the erratic nature of paper cuts") is behind a paywall, but you can find a copy on github. One of the authors posted a video on YouTube that explains their research and findings.
More info: phys.org
Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 27, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Injuries | Science | Experiments
Miss Grits
Alas, I fear this contest has been discontinued.
Teeny Miss Grits Ava Dean, 2, (L) and Miss Grits Lindsay Dobbs, 16, participate in the parade during the 14th annual National Grits Festival in Warwick, Georgia USA on 09 April 2011.
13th Annual National Grits Festival in Warwick Georgia every April featuring arts and crafts, eating event, corn shelling, parade and rolling in the grits pit.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 27, 2024 -
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Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests | Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues | Food | Parades and Festivals | Regionalism
October 26, 2024
Monument to the Unelected
The front yard of a Phoenix home displays campaigns signs of major candidates who have lost a presidential election, including failed candidates of yesteryear such as James G. Blaine and Winfield Hancock.The signs are the work of artist Nina Katchadourian who calls it the "Monument to the Unelected." She's been creating it (and finding homes to host it) every presidential election cycle since 2008. On her website she explains:
Each sign was made in a design vernacular that could have come from any time in the past few decades, even if it advertised a candidate from a previous century. At a time when the country was preoccupied with the "fork in the road" moment of a major national election, the piece presented a view of the country's collective political road not taken.
More info: smoca.org, AZFamily.com
Posted By: Alex - Sat Oct 26, 2024 -
Comments (3)
Category: Art | Politics | Signage
The Birth of the Robot
The creator's Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Oct 26, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Robots | Stop-motion Animation | 1930s | Cars
October 25, 2024
The Ding Dong Dog of Cuminestone
Newport News Daily Press - Dec 15, 1963
Posted By: Alex - Fri Oct 25, 2024 -
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Category: School | Dogs | 1960s
Louvered Sunglasses
Wouldn't you look chic wearing these? And no more viewing the world through "rose-colored glasses."Original patent here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Oct 25, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Inventions | Patents | 1950s | Eyes and Vision
October 24, 2024
The Great Grand Canyon Deer Drive of 1924
In the early 1920s, the deer population was growing out of control on the Kaibab Plateau north of the Grand Canyon. The area had been designated a National Game Preserve in 1906, and since then the deer population had swelled from around 4000 to as many as 100,000 (by some estimates).Farmer George McCormick came up with a solution. He proposed herding thousands of the deer down into the canyon, over the Colorado river, and then up onto the South Rim where there was plenty of room for them.
Critics pointed out that you can't herd deer, but this didn't deter McCormick. He put together a team of about 50 men on horseback (including the writer Zane Grey) and 100 local Native Americans on foot. Then they set out to herd the deer. Details of how they fared from Arizona Highways magazine (July 2004):
The Indians carried cowbells and rang them to get the deer moving out of the woods. They also beat metal pans with sticks, while the men on horseback waved hats, shouted and fired guns.
"But as they drew near the deer, instead of retreating, the animals almost invariably dashed through the cordon of men," reported the Sun. "Not only did they refuse to run away forward, but in charging the line, the animals seemed not to care a particle how close they came to the men. In many instances the latter had to give ground.
"One immense buck charged four mounted men, of whom Mr. Grey was one, and the latter reached for his gun, expecting to be run down. The deer just missed the quartet...
The effort continued through that day and the next. But it never approached anything but total chaos, with deer stampeding in every direction.
"But as they drew near the deer, instead of retreating, the animals almost invariably dashed through the cordon of men," reported the Sun. "Not only did they refuse to run away forward, but in charging the line, the animals seemed not to care a particle how close they came to the men. In many instances the latter had to give ground.
"One immense buck charged four mounted men, of whom Mr. Grey was one, and the latter reached for his gun, expecting to be run down. The deer just missed the quartet...
The effort continued through that day and the next. But it never approached anything but total chaos, with deer stampeding in every direction.
For more info, there's a detailed article about the deer drive in the Summer 2004 issue of Boatman's Quarterly Review (available as free pdf). Some images from that article:
Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 24, 2024 -
Comments (3)
Category: Animals | Farming | Really Bad Ideas | 1920s
1000 Cigarettes
Plexiglas book. Pages are laminated with collage elements embedded. Collage elements comprised of debris from smoking 50 packages, a total of 1000, of Camel cigarettes including cigarette butts, match-book covers, burnt matches, ashes, and smoke. Book is Coptic bound with various colored threads. The front cover of the book is laser-etched with the title; the back cover is laser-etched with the name of the press. Dimensions: Book 29 x 22.5 x 6 cm. Container/box 32 x 25.5 x 9 cm. Unique, one-of-a-kind.
The box cover and internal tray are made by Mark Wagner. The cover is collaged from 1/4-inch slivers cut from packages of Camel cigarettes. These cut slivers are reconstructed to form the image of the camel and desert landscape as they appear on the package of Camel cigarettes.
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 24, 2024 -
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Category: Art | Fey, Twee, Whimsical, Naive and Sadsack | Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art | Books | Smoking and Tobacco | Twenty-first Century
October 23, 2024
The Peanut Butter Painting
Inspired by peanut farmer Jimmy Carter becoming President, in 1977 Owensboro artist C.G. "Moose" Morehead used peanut butter to paint a picture of a barn — mixing the peanut butter (Jif) with oil colors. Morehead called it the "Peanut Butter Painting."It's believed that this was the first time peanut butter was used as the medium for a painting. Jimmy Carter later signed the painting. And due to the interest in the painting, 2000 limited-edition prints were made of it, some of which can now be found on eBay. Though the prints obviously contain no peanut butter.
The Peanut Butter Painting
Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer - Feb 24, 1977
Posted By: Alex - Wed Oct 23, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Art | 1970s
George Carl—“French Pantomimist”—on The Ed Sullivan Show
Prime time humor was really different, way back when.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 23, 2024 -
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Category: Human Marvels | Humor | Television | 1960s | Europe
