Your Daily Loser & Jury Duty for May 5th

I am not Chuck. So I don't hope to replace him in any way. But the Daily Loser and Jury Duty segments of WU are some of my favorites and I would miss them. Here's hoping you guys don't mind if I pick up the torch.

Your Daily Loser - Police in Northwood, New Hampshire needed an innertube to pull a burglary suspect out of a lake. The young man and his friend tried to break into a house Saturday night but were caught because a passing driver heard glass breaking and called the cops. Out of curiosity, what did they use to break the glass? Dynamite? How loud can breaking glass be that you would hear it while driving by someone's house? When the police arrived, the suspect fled, jumped into the freezing Northwood Lake and had to be rescued. The Story. // The Video.

Jury Duty - Two young men in Palmyra, New York have been accused of luring a calf out of a barn and butchering it because they were hungry. Sadly the article only has the mug shot from one of the suspects. Story and Mugshot.

Posted By: Nethie - Tue May 05, 2009 - Comments (6)
Category: Your Daily Jury Duty, Your Daily Loser, Goofs and Screw-ups

Shih Chieh Huang

I saw this sculpture in person at the RI School of Design Museum recently. It almost seemed alive, with its "breathing" plastic bags. This is the good kind of weird art I can endorse!

Visit Shih Chieh Huang's official site here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue May 05, 2009 - Comments (1)
Category: Art

Nirvana, With Sock Puppets

One of Kurt Cobain's most famous songs, as reinterpreted by Polyphonic Spree with sock puppets.

Need I say more?

Posted By: Paul - Tue May 05, 2009 - Comments (3)
Category: Music, Puppets and Automatons, 1990s

$400k Down the Hatch

What do Argentina, booze, and homosexuals have in common? Or, maybe, a better question is, why is the US spending $400k to find out? Six lucky researchers (no sexual preferences mentioned) get to travel to Buenos Aires to find out. YT$AW

Posted By: Expat47 - Tue May 05, 2009 - Comments (4)
Category:

So, We Taste Like Bacon?

Ever wondered what human flesh would taste like but you've never been trapped in the Andes due to a horrific plane crash? Then this cute little robot has the answer. Designed by researchers in Japan, the Winebot is supposed to be for sorting different types of wine, cheese and hors d'oeuvres. But when a reporter placed his hand against the sensor, he was declared to be "bacon". Anyone care to confirm?

Posted By: Nethie - Mon May 04, 2009 - Comments (7)
Category: Animals, Body, Cannibalism, Inventions, Robots

Follies of the Mad Men #66

[From Look magazine for July 22 1958. Two scans, top and bottom.]

Sure, you've all heard of one of the most infamous Madison Avenue displays of ignorance ever, the "flesh-colored Band-aid." But how many of us have actually seen the offending ad?

Here is one instance from many in that racist campaign.

Posted By: Paul - Mon May 04, 2009 - Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Health, Stereotypes and Cliches, Stupidity, 1950s

Finishes and Starts

Dear Fellow WUvians,

Let me just add my two cents to the ongoing dialogue about this blog. First, I've had a wonderful time doing it, working alongside such geniuses of the bizarre as Alex and Chuck. Second, I'm proud of and honored by the community of readers and participants that has evolved here. You can congratulate yourselves on being the First Family of Weird.






But the economics of all this fun are insupportable, alas. I currently spend from 1.0 to 1.5 hours daily on WU. That sounds trivial, doesn't it? But consider that that amounts to one work week per month! A week in which I generate no money to feed a plump cocker spaniel named Brownie. Look at him: could you resist his entreaties for more kibbles? And kibbles cost money.

In any case, I applaud and support Alex's attempt to change the site to viewer participation, and I'll probably contribute in the far future as circumstances allow. But for all of May and June, I intend to perform at my regular rate of two posts per weekday and one apiece on the weekend days, so as to reach our one-year anniversary in July with head nobly upheld.

Stay weird!

Posted By: Paul - Mon May 04, 2009 - Comments (7)
Category: Weird Universe, Paul

Float On

Barry White, they ain't!

Posted By: Paul - Sun May 03, 2009 - Comments (0)
Category: Music, Sex Symbols, 1970s

Two Weird Books

In the UK, sex services leave their advert cards in phone booths, These items are known as tart cards. A representative sampling has been collected in book form, as you can see in the link below.

But aren't phone booths going extinct everywhere? Who will save the endangered tart card?!?






And of course, the Golden Age of print magazines is long gone or vanishing as well. But you can encounter the weirdest examples of the great Era of Zines in a new volume entitled Bad Mags 2. It's supposed to release in June, although Amazon is uncertain, so you'll have to check out its predecessor first. And visit the Bad Mags site here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat May 02, 2009 - Comments (5)
Category: Magazines, Sexuality, Advertising, Books

The Plan (or, how to volunteer to post stuff)

Thanks to everyone who has expressed an interest in posting content here.

So here's the plan. If you'd like to post content, send me an email (alex at weirduniverse.net). Over the next few days, I'll set things up so that the volunteers can start posting stuff. I'll tell them via email how it's done.

I'm going to keep the group of people able to post content on the front page restricted to those who send a request via email, so I'll be able to personally weed out any spammers. And I'm also going to reserve the right to take away anyone's ability to post on the front page. (For instance, if someone really doesn't seem to understand the general theme of the site and keeps posting political diatribes, or something like that.)

I'll also probably create a forum which will be open to pretty much anyone. So the top tier of the site will be the front-page blog, and the second tier will be the forum.

Anyway, for now that's the plan. Stay tuned!

Posted By: Alex - Sat May 02, 2009 - Comments (3)
Category: