Serpentarius the Healer

A debate has begun about changing the zodiac. The idea is to better reflect where the Earth now resides amongst the stars. Apparently the things have shifted a bit in the last 3,000 years. Ophiuchus is the new sign, it represents Serpentarius the Healer.
The face of new zodiac calendar:
Capricorn: Jan. 20 – Feb. 16
Aquarius: Feb. 16 – March 11
Pisces: March 11- April 18
Aries: April 18- May 13
Taurus: May 13- June 21
Gemini: June 21- July 20
Cancer: July 20- Aug. 10
Leo: Aug. 10- Sept. 16
Virgo: Sept. 16- Oct. 30
Libra: Oct. 30- Nov. 23
Scorpio: Nov. 23- Nov. 29
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29- Dec. 17
Sagittarius: Dec. 17- Jan. 20

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jan 15, 2011 - Comments (8)
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AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

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The New York subway. Charming.

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 14, 2011 - Comments (4)
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Put It Back Down

Seymour Bits - Put It Back Down from magnetron music on Vimeo.

Note: moderate alien cartoon nudity.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 14, 2011 - Comments (5)
Category: Music, Pop Art, Surrealism

Icy Beauty

Please enjoy some lovely and intricate ice sculptures brought to us by danny53.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jan 13, 2011 - Comments (1)
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Weird Shorts – 4

Talk about a mammoth appetite, when most of the world’s large mammals went extinct roughly 10,000 years ago, the vast majority of the vanished species were herbivores. This of course meant that they were no longer around to eat the plants they otherwise would have, and - according to Christophers Doughty and Field from Oxford and Stanford Universities respectively – this freed up an extra 1.4 trillion kilos of food, roughly 2.5% of the net product of all Earth’s dry land. However, the researchers add, this excess had been ‘used up’ by burgeoning human numbers by around 1700 and today we consume six times as much as the Pleistocene critters ever did while simultaneously driving down land productivity by 10% (Nature)(PDF).

That’s not to say that our massive consumption doesn’t have it’s upside, As Vangelis Kapatos of Manhattan discovered when he attempted suicide by jumping from his ninth floor flat, only to survive when his fall was broken by a pile of uncollected garbage. Mr. Kapatos’ timing, from his perspective, couldn’t have been worse, the unusually large garbage pile was due to collections being suspended because of snow. They were due to resume the day after his impromptu dumpster dive (Today Online).

Mind you, we’re not the only animals prone to excess. After finding the bodies of dozens of starlings near the city of Constanta in Romania, locals were concerned that the cause might be bird flu, instead post-mortems of the birds have revealed that they in fact died of alcohol poisoning, having ‘drunk’ themselves to death on the discarded leftovers of the local winemaking industry. A least they died happy (BBC News).

Better than dying happy, though, is living happy, and the secret of that, says the UK’s Office for National Statistics, is having a job. But it’s not the pay but the job security that counts, say the government statisticians, which ironically are facing staff cuts themselves due to the economic downturn. Other key happiness factors, according to the preliminary report, are good personal health and a decent family life. What will we do without these people (Telegraph)?



More in extended >>

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Thu Jan 13, 2011 - Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Creatures, Armageddon and Apocalypses, Babies, Crime, Death, Human Marvels, Inebriation and Intoxicants, Religion, Sexuality, Weird Names, Body Fluids, Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents

How to Eat Fried Furries

WU reader Nicole Cushing would like to alert us to a new piece of fiction of hers that seems designed to click with our sensibilities. She tells us, "HOW TO EAT FRIED FURRIES is set in a world where farmers raise furries as livestock."

Nuff said!

Posted By: Paul - Thu Jan 13, 2011 - Comments (1)
Category: Food, Humor, Books

Now, This Is Too Much to Bear . . .

Did you notice that on the main page today, at 6 p.m. Eastern time, ads appeared for my 1989 paperback News of the Weird, and my 1991 paperback Beyond News of the Weird, selling for "$0.01" each? Xanax can't fix this; Ativan can't fix this; Thorazine can't fix this. I'm outta here. CS [not really--LOL]

Posted By: Chuck - Wed Jan 12, 2011 - Comments (3)
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Holiday from Rules?

Those darn anarchists have to start somewhere!

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 11, 2011 - Comments (3)
Category: Education, PSA’s, Children, 1950s

Another Helping of Food Related Weirdness – 7

Scientists have a history of accomplishing what was once thought impossible, be it walking on the moon, splitting the atom or alleviating pain and disease. But now they may have discovered something that will eclipse all that has come before; scientists are on the verge of making chocolate better! A team lead by Dr. Siela Maximova from Pennsylvania State University has pieced together the genetic code of the cacao tree, and not just any cacao tree but the Criollo variety that is widely recognised to produce the very best chocolate. Because of its poor disease resistance, Criollo is almost entirely ignored in favour of hybrid varieties that yield more – if inferior – beans, but Maximova et al hope their work will enable the development of new, elite strains of cacao (News.com.AU).

Meanwhile, here is someone who is taking the chocolate maker’s art way too literally. Jean Zaun of Fredericksburg in Pennsylvania uses a mixture of dark and white chocolate, food colouring and confectioner’s glaze to recreate famous works of art, including the frames, in a deliciously edible form. Her subjects have included the works of Van Gogh, Munch and Da Vinci, as well as a portrait of Ozzy Osborne commissioned by his wife. While the chocolate artworks are edible, Zaun believes they should be souvenirs rather than snacks. “They are meant to be consumed by the eye, not the stomach.” Zaun Explained (Daily Mail).

And the misuse of materials won’t stop there, at least not if Dr. Peter Eisner of the Fraunhofer Institute gets his way. Concerned that meat consumption is both unhealthy and bad for the environment, Dr. Eisner has started looking for ways to supplement or replace animal products with vegetable equivalents. His first success is a milk substitute derived from lupins that can even be used to make cheese, meanwhile co-worker Daniela Sussmann has extracted a protein from the seeds gives low-fat sausages more of the sensation of their unadulterated competition. Eisner reckons that our ever growing appetite for meat could one day be disastrous, arguing that the resources needed to produce 1 kilo of meat could instead yield 80 to 100 kilos of fruit or vegetables (Softpedia).



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Posted By: Dumbfounded - Mon Jan 10, 2011 - Comments (7)
Category: Agriculture, Animals, Farming, Art, Food, Bacon, Candy, Junk Food, Nutrition, Vegetables

Heidi

Check out Heidi the cross-eyed opossum. She will be on display in a German zoo starting July 1 this year.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 10, 2011 - Comments (2)
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