Weird Universe Blog — October 11, 2024
Pop-Up Postcards
We know that Pop-Up books are a well-liked category. So why not apply the notion to postcards?Full patent here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Oct 11, 2024 -
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Category: Inventions | Patents | 1900s | Postal Services
October 10, 2024
Divorce - the perfume
Her Highness Sheikha Mahra Bint Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum recently divorced her husband. Inspired by this event (or to celebrate it?), she's launching a new perfume called "Divorce".Not exactly a perfume to give a romantic attachment. I guess she's aiming at a very specific market niche.
More info: MiddleEastEye.net, Instagram, Mahra M1
Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 10, 2024 -
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Category: Divorce | Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents
Fresh Out of Borstal
Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 10, 2024 -
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Category: Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators | Music | Prisons | 1970s | United Kingdom
October 9, 2024
Beer can art mistaken for trash
A recent case of art mistaken for trash. Details from Artnet news:The LAM museum in Lisse, the Netherlands,... recently found one of its artworks in the trash, accidentally thrown out by an elevator technician who mistook it for garbage.
At first glance, Alexandre Lavet’s All the good times we spent together by (2016) appear to be a pair of empty beer cans, drunk and discarded, one slightly crushed. But closer inspection reveals that these weren’t regular beer cans—and Lavet is no readymade artist.
Instead, he meticulously hand painted the cans, creating two perfect replicas of cans of Jupiler beer. Lavet intended the piece as a tribute to memories of good times spent with friends.
The worker responsible for throwing out the art was filling in for the museum’s regular technician. That meant he wasn’t familiar with the works in the museum’s collection, which it advertises as the world’s largest museum collection of food art.
He also probably didn’t realize that the LAM museum takes delight in stashing artworks in unexpected, unconventional places. All the good times was behind glass, but not in a traditional vitrine. Instead, it could be seen inside the elevator shaft, as if it had been left behind by construction workers’ knocking off after their shifts.
At first glance, Alexandre Lavet’s All the good times we spent together by (2016) appear to be a pair of empty beer cans, drunk and discarded, one slightly crushed. But closer inspection reveals that these weren’t regular beer cans—and Lavet is no readymade artist.
Instead, he meticulously hand painted the cans, creating two perfect replicas of cans of Jupiler beer. Lavet intended the piece as a tribute to memories of good times spent with friends.
The worker responsible for throwing out the art was filling in for the museum’s regular technician. That meant he wasn’t familiar with the works in the museum’s collection, which it advertises as the world’s largest museum collection of food art.
He also probably didn’t realize that the LAM museum takes delight in stashing artworks in unexpected, unconventional places. All the good times was behind glass, but not in a traditional vitrine. Instead, it could be seen inside the elevator shaft, as if it had been left behind by construction workers’ knocking off after their shifts.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Oct 09, 2024 -
Comments (3)
Category: Art
LOW AND INSIDE and THREE MEN ON THIRD
Weird baseball lore? Try these two books--LOW AND INSIDE and THREE MEN ON THIRD--by H. Allen Smith.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 09, 2024 -
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Category: Sports | Weird Facts | Books | 1940s
October 8, 2024
The Ghost Parking Lot of Hamden, Connecticut
The "Ghost Parking Lot" was the 1978 creation of artist/architect James Wines. It consisted of twenty cars, placed in a mall parking lot, then buried to varying degrees, and finally covered with tarmac.
image source: sitenewyork.com
Torrance Daily Breeze - June 1, 1978
Wines explained: "this fusion of typically mobile artifacts with their environment takes advantage of people’s subliminal connections with the rituals of shopping center merchandising and the fetishism of American car culture."
But over the years the tarmac peeled off the cars and no repairs were made. So in 2003 the city decided to remove the cars. They were replaced by a Starbucks drive-thru. Wines commented, "If (the sculpture) was in a museum, it would've been preserved."
More info: sitenewyork.com
Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 08, 2024 -
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Category: Art | 1970s | Cars
The Hays Code
We've all heard of the infamous Hays Code,which governed for decades what could and could not be shown in a Hollywood film. But have you ever had a chance to actually read its 24 pages? Well, you do now!Text here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 08, 2024 -
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Category: Censorship, Bluenoses, Taboos, Prohibitions and Other Cultural No-No’s | Movies | Twentieth Century
October 7, 2024
Clement Uhlich’s Dung Collector
An apparatus that could be attached to vehicles for the purpose of scooping up horse dung.The driver would turn a lever that would lower tongs to scoop up the dung. Once collected, the dung could be deposited into a receptacle.
More info: Patent No. 1,059,506
Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 07, 2024 -
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Category: Patents | 1910s
Irradiated Milk
This product was not subject to atomic radiation, but rather a different process. In the 1930s, to fight rickets, scientists sought to increase the Vitamin D content in milk through the application of ultraviolet rays.However, as this account relates:
Making matters worse, while experiments showed milk to be an ideal source for getting vitamin D into the diets of American children, prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light tended to give fluid milk a foul odor and an off-putting taste. On top of that, any excess heat had the counterproductive effect of destroying the milk’s vitamin A.
But finally, science found a way!
But, of course, for both political and nutritional reasons, finding a way to deliver vitamin D dairy products remained the ultimate prize. After years of testing, Steenbock, Scott and their collaborators finally determined a three-part scheme for fortifying milk. First, dairy cows could be fed with irradiated feed to produce higher levels of vitamin D. Second, industrial machines constructed by companies like Creamery Package Manufacturing and Hanovia Chemical allowed large-scale irradiation of fluids while minimizing the negative effects on taste and smell.12 Third, irradiated ergosterol could be mixed into the final product as a tasteless additive.13
Read the manufacturer's pamphlet here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 07, 2024 -
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Category: Food | Science | Children | 1930s | Diseases
October 6, 2024
Circular Runways
Navy pilot James R. Conley is credited with first promoting (and patenting) the idea of a circular runway.A circular runway would offer advantages such as being able to approach it from any direction, so a plane could always land into the wind. Also, you'd never run out of runway.
But a circular runway has never been built, largely because pilots aren't trained to land on them. Nor are flight systems designed for them.
But a small group of enthusiasts still holds out hope that, someday, circular runways might see their day.
More info: wikipedia, Wired (May 5, 2017)
Long Beach Independent - Dec 5, 1965
Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 06, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Patents | Air Travel and Airlines
