Weird Universe Archive
March 2009
March 16, 2009
Maya Deren’s AT LAND
Learn more about Maya Deren here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Mar 16, 2009 -
Comments (3)
Category: Art, Performance Art, Surrealism, Movies, Sexuality, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, 1940s
Abstinence Clown
A few weeks ago I posted about the Christian Clowning Ministry. Now meet Derek Dye, the Abstinence Clown:Students enjoy Derek's true-life stories, his heartfelt messages, choreographed musical juggling routines, and audience interaction -- all performed with a touch of comedy to make everyone laugh and think at the same time.
(via Science Punk)
Posted By: Alex - Mon Mar 16, 2009 -
Comments (5)
Category: Sexuality
[News] Your Daily Losers
[Editor's Note: By the way, I'm back at work after spending a week at cynicism training camp (I was honor graduate!). My format's a little different nowadays so that I can put up more posts (though the e-mail subscribers will still get just one cumulative mail a day) (and you can sign up for the e-mail, via Mr. Google, here). Today's Newsrangers will be listed in the day's final news post.]Jeffrey Latham, 37, Pasadena, Tex., recipient of one of the shortest probations on record (after sobering up, convicted of DUI, given probation, two hours later reporting to the probation office to register, but by then, drunk on his ass). Beaumont Enterprise
Marcel Fournier, 19, Concord, N.H., reported by prosecutors to have illegally hunted does instead of bucks, including, in one case, using epoxy and "lag bolts" to nail a 10-point rack on a doe's head, to fool inspectors. Burlington Free Press
Terence Loyd, 32, arrested in Mansfield, La., after having scurried around on all fours, eaten dog food, rolled around in and eaten mud, and growled like a mutt (PCP is back!). Shreveport Times
Matthew Dugger, 21, Cape Coral, Fla., faced with debilitating F State boredom, was sent to the ER (reason: obvious) early into an afternoon of smashing bullets with a hammer in his driveway. WZVN-TV (Fort Myers)
Derek Clark, 26, is in an intensive care unit in Evansville, Ind., about to be charged with a home invasion that didn't work out (shot by homeowner, then accidentally run over by his wheel man . . twice). WFIE-TV (Evansville)
Posted By: Chuck - Mon Mar 16, 2009 -
Comments (5)
Category:
March 15, 2009
Donald Duck in THE PLASTICS INVENTOR
So it's Donald Duck who's responsible for a world choking in plastic gimcracks!
Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 15, 2009 -
Comments (5)
Category: Technology, Cartoons, Documentaries, 1940s
March 14, 2009
Bird of Paradise Mating Dance
The Coolest Bird On The Planet. - video powered by Metacafe
Posted By: Paul - Sat Mar 14, 2009 -
Comments (9)
Category: Animals, Sexuality, Dance, Natural Wonders
March 13, 2009
Happy Friday the 13th
Triskaidekaphobiacs are in a state of panic because today is not only Friday the 13th; it's the second Friday the 13th in the span of four weeks. Such back-to-back Friday the 13ths haven't occurred in twenty years.I always find it strange that some high-rise buildings still omit the 13th floor, because of course the 13th floor is still there, even if you call it something else.
Wikipedia notes that in east Asia, fear of the number 4 is more common than fear of the number 13:
Tetraphobia, fear of the number 4 — (phonetically similar to 'death') in Korea, China, and Japan, as well as in many East-Asian and some Southeast-Asian countries, it's not uncommon for buildings (including offices, apartments, hotels) to lack floors with the number 4 and Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia's 1xxx-9xxx series of mobile phones does not include any model numbers beginning with a 4. In Taiwan, tetraphobia is so common that there are no 4's or x4's for hospitals.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 13, 2009 -
Comments (13)
Category: Superstition
Daytona 500 Cologne
Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 13, 2009 -
Comments (4)
Category: Products, Cars, Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents
Bollywood-Style Arms Video
Thanks to Josh Klein for submitting this video, which has been described as a "catastrophic collision of Bollywood and the arms industry." Produced by an Israeli arms company to drum up business in India, it features actors in Bollywood costume dancing around surface-to-air missiles.But dammit, I now have the idiotic jingle from the video looping endlessly in my head: Dinga Dinga, Dinga Dinga, Dinga Dinga, Dinga Dinga Dee...
Please make it stop!
Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 13, 2009 -
Comments (2)
Category: Video, Weapons
What is the Starbucks logo?
An Egyptian cleric is warning his followers to boycott Starbucks because he thinks the woman in its logo is Queen Esther:"The girl in the Starbucks logo is Queen Esther. Do you know who Queen Esther was and what the crown on her head means? This is the crown of the Persian kingdom. This queen is the queen of the Jews. She is mentioned in the Torah, in the Book of Esther. The girl you see is Esther, the queen of the Jews in Persia,"
Of course, the woman in the logo isn't Queen Esther. Though I don't think the cleric would consider what the woman really is to be any better. From "The Mermaid" by Heinz Insu Fenkl:
although the image [in the Starbucks logo] is that of a split-tailed sea creature, it is a siren. More specifically, it is a double-tailed siren, a baubo siren, which The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects points out, is "a cross between a mermaid and a sheila-na-gig" and is found as a decorative motif in many European churches and cathedrals. "Her suggestive pose, like that of the sheila-na-gig, referred to female sexual mysteries in particular."
Sheila-na-gig is a general reference to female figures that prominently display their genitalia to signify the power of female sexuality and fertility. These images are also quite prominent in the decoration of sacred sites in general and are thought to be a legacy of the older Goddess religions whose holy sites were usually taken over by later religions. The shape of the genitalia in these squatting figures is also symbolic of the vesica piscis, the "vessel of the fish," which is also associated with Christ.
Sheila-na-gig is a general reference to female figures that prominently display their genitalia to signify the power of female sexuality and fertility. These images are also quite prominent in the decoration of sacred sites in general and are thought to be a legacy of the older Goddess religions whose holy sites were usually taken over by later religions. The shape of the genitalia in these squatting figures is also symbolic of the vesica piscis, the "vessel of the fish," which is also associated with Christ.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 13, 2009 -
Comments (12)
Category: Sexuality
March 12, 2009
Every Foto of Lincoln—Save One
Now that a new photo of Abe Lincoln has been found, I'm sure the maker of the video below is cursing those discoverers.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Mar 12, 2009 -
Comments (6)
Category: Photography and Photographers, Politics, Historical Figure, Nineteenth Century
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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 |
