Weird Universe Archive
September 2008
September 21, 2008
Tiger Trouble
I first learned of the reign of man-eating tigers here ten years ago, watching this series of PBS's NATURE show. One episode revealed how the natives had to wear human face masks on the backs of their heads to avoid tigers pouncing on them and eating them. (It was not a totally successful tactic.) I believe this bit later showed up in the wonderful Calvin and Hobbes strip, with Calvin trying the same tactic to avoid Hobbes's attacks.
This photographer, who goes by the handle of Jimbojack, has some wonderful photos of the region for you to look at.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 21, 2008 -
Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Death, Regionalism, Television, India
September 20, 2008
TeacherTube
How could I have been ignorant prior to now of the glories of TeacherTube, which hosts such stimulating videos as this one?The fun never stops!
Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 20, 2008 -
Comments (5)
Category: Boredom, Education, Video
Upside-Down Rainbows
Until yesterday, I didn't know this phenomenon was possible: upside-down rainbows. The Telegraph has a photo of one caught on camera by Dr. Jacqueline Mitton near Cambridge last week.SF Gate has a picture of another one, from a year ago, and offers this explanation:
When sunlight hits the hexagonal ice crystals that sometimes create a thin haze high in the sky, each crystal bends the light and breaks it into all the colors of the rainbow. Combined, the millions of crystals form what atmospheric scientists call a circumzenithal arc, but the band of colors in the arc is reversed from the way it appears in regular rainbows.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 20, 2008 -
Comments (3)
Category: Nature, Weather
Chuck’s Hand-Picked Overnight Weird News for Saturday
The news is normally posted by 9 a.m., New York time, Monday through Saturday. However, I awakened this morning with a nerve thingie that I've had before on my toes where they feel like, y'know, they're "asleep," only they stay that way for a few days, except that this morning, it's on my fingers, and my typing speed is slowed to a crawl. Jeez. Anyway, I'll figure out something here, but just not right now.
Posted By: Chuck - Sat Sep 20, 2008 -
Comments (0)
Category:
September 19, 2008
Why Study Science?
Has science ever looked duller than in this video?
Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 19, 2008 -
Comments (4)
Category: Boredom, Education, Family, Children, Parents, Futurism, Pop Culture, Science, Technology, Video, 1950s, Yesterday’s Tomorrows
Chuck’s Hand-Picked Overnight Weird News for Friday
Death-row inmate angles, maybe, for a public service award?Richard Cooey, 41, scheduled to go belly-up next month in Ohio, is suing the prison because he's fat, and his veins are hard to get at, and thus he can only be executed painfully. And, he says, the only reason he's challenging is to preserve the Constitution's ban on "cruel" punishment. "If it would make people happy, shoot me in the head with a .45," because that would be quick and painless, but (we can imagine his argument going) we must honor and nurture our Constitutional guarantees. Associated Press via Fox News
Comments 'richard_cooey'
Never bullshirt a bullshirter—well, except perhaps this guy
Stock broker Michael Axel (according to New York prosecutors) stole $600k from elderly clients' accounts he was managing and was indicted yesterday, even though the gov't concedes that Axel had lost about $400k of that in his own investment with a very nice gentleman in Nigeria who volunteered to help him liquidate an inheritance Axel had not even known about! New York Times
Comments 'michael_axel'
Intelligent design: plants self-medicate against stress
Who knew? Bonus: They don't need Limbaugh-strength painkillers; an aspirin-derivative works just fine. LiveScience.com
Comments 'plants_medicate'
55 percent of Americans have convinced themselves they've been protected by angels
Kinda-suprisingly, only 66 percent of evangelical Christians believe that, but on the other hand, 20 percent of atheists believe it. [Ed.: Those numbers seem high, but they're surely not as high as the number who have convinced themselves that some amorphous, devilish force is screwing them over]. USA Today
Comments 'angel_beliefs'
Update: JZ Knight's Ramtha school wins
The jury quickly decided this week that Ms. Whitewind Weaver had ripped off Knight's business-plan details and gave her about $10k in damages. It could have been a reaction to Weaver's lawyer's slight exaggeration during the trial, calling the Ramtha School of Enlightenment "Enron-like." Knight said that, as far as she knew, Ramtha himself stayed out of the dispute. The Olympian
Comments 'ramtha_update'
Your Daily Losers
Not only did the brothers, ages 18 and 20, get into an actual brawl over which one of them would get to eat that Hot Pocket sandwich, but one wanted it enough to stab the other with a steak knife. WSBT-TV (South Bend, Ind.)
Comments 'hot_pocket'
People Whose Sex Lives Are Worse Than Yours
A 50-yr-old man was busted at almost high noon in downtown Ann Arbor, Mich., behind a building, with his pants around his ankles, peering at a porn magazine, with a beer in one hand and you-know-what in the other. Ann Arbor News
Comments 'annarbor_porn'
Your Daily Jury Duty
[no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
Tracy Mullins, 47, might very well have had a valid reason for being found asleep in someone else's home; ya can't tell unless ya click the link. Billings Gazette
Comments 'tracy_mullins'
More Things to Worry About on Friday
Cops found enough cockroaches in this house in Leesburg, Fla., to suggest that maybe this is where they were congregating to wait for the Apocalypse [with video!] . . . . . The official reason for kicking the Colliers B team out of the British women's darts league was because they cussed during matches, but team member Melanie Partlow thinks it's because she's a one-legged, post-op tranny . . . . . The Church of England, trying really hard to de-Americanize the concept of Halloween, goes so far as to compare it to Christmas Eve (In both events, "light com[es] in the darkness") . . . . . Hard-luck Illinois woman: Even when she had an orgasm, it gave her a life-threatening stroke (and she's OK now, but, jeez--) . . . . . Leading economic indicator: Starting in June, a Portage, Ind., coke dealer had been imposing a $25/order gasoline surcharge. Today's Newsrangers: Oh, y'know, the usual gang
Comments 'worry_080919'
Posted By: Chuck - Fri Sep 19, 2008 -
Comments (0)
Category:
September 18, 2008
Would you buy a car from this dealer?
This Brazilian auto dealer has a rather unfortunate name. (Warning: NSFW language!) I would have thought that, even in Brazil, they would recognize that term.It appears that in Brazil some people have the F-word as their last name. Take, for instance, the example of Dr. Reinhardt Adolfo F***, who is a Professor of Geology at the University of Brazil. It must be a bit awkward whenever they travel to an English-speaking country: "Welcome to America, Mr. F***!"
Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 18, 2008 -
Comments (2)
Category: South America
The Man Shot By a Particle Beam
Given the recent startup of the Large Hadron Collider, it seems timely to remember the tale of Anatoli Bugorski.On July 13, 1978 Bugorski leaned down to check a part in a U-70 synchrotron particle accelerator. He saw a brilliant flash of light. He had just become the first man to be shot through the head by a particle beam. Miraculously, he survived, although the left side of his face was paralyzed. The beam was highly radioactive, but also very focused, and therefore the radiation didn't disperse into his body. More details at Forgetomori.
What would happen if someone were hit by the LHC's particle beam? I doubt they'd fare as well as Bugorski. To put its power in perspective, Scientific American calculated that it could defrost a pizza in 30 nanoseconds (billionths of a second), assuming the beam energy could be spread across the entire surface of the pizza.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 18, 2008 -
Comments (0)
Category: Science
Kiddie Treadmills
Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 18, 2008 -
Comments (16)
Category: Business, Products, Exercise and Fitness, Fads, Family, Children, Parents, Frauds, Cons and Scams, Technology
Follies of the Mad Men #28
SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Ingesting almost two hours of vintage cigarette commercials for the same brand might be dangerous to your health. Symptoms may include light-headedness, uncontrollable giggling, and a desire to stick two cigarettes in your mouth simultaneously. Indulge with caution!
Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 18, 2008 -
Comments (13)
Category: Business, Advertising, Television, Tobacco and Smoking, 1950s
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction books such as Elephants on Acid. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Chuck Shepherd Chuck is the purveyor of News of the Weird, the syndicated column which for decades has set the gold-standard for reporting on oddities and the bizarre. Our banner was drawn by the legendary underground cartoonist Rick Altergott. Contact Us |
