Weird Universe Archive
December 2013
December 11, 2013
Kama Sutra Cookies
How about some Kama sutra cookies for the holidays? Then you'll need some Kama sutra cookie cutters!
Posted By: Alex - Wed Dec 11, 2013 -
Comments (8)
Category:
Japanese Acrobats
A silent film from 1907 featuring surreal acrobatic maneuvers.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Dec 11, 2013 -
Comments (8)
Category: Video, 1900s
Tracked Motorcycles for Snow
Now that's a damn snowmobile!
See more here.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 11, 2013 -
Comments (9)
Category: Seasonal, Motorcycles
December 10, 2013
Spike Away
Yesterday I posted about Paris metro etiquette rules, and then, by chance, I came across this. It's the "Spike Away" from artist Siew Ming Cheng who writes:Trains are usually crowded during peak hours. Everybody will push each other to try and get onto the train. How can I protect my personal space? The idea was then conceived. "What if I wear a vest that is full of spikes?"
That's an unusual train of thought! (pun, unfortunately, intended). More details at CNet.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Dec 10, 2013 -
Comments (7)
Category: Fashion, Subways
Mutton Busting
Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 10, 2013 -
Comments (9)
Category: Animals, Sports, Children
December 9, 2013
Paris Metro Etiquette Rules
The Parisian public transit authority has issued an illustrated etiquette handbook [PDF] for riders of the metro system. Nice idea, but I'm guessing that it'll only be seen by those who don't need to read it. [Globe and Mail]
Keep your armpits to yourself
No loud music
Don't hold the train up as you say goodbye
Don't shout into your cellphone
Posted By: Alex - Mon Dec 09, 2013 -
Comments (5)
Category: Subways
News of the Weird 2.0 (December 9, 2013)
News of the Weird 2.0Angst, Confusion, Cynicism, Ridicule
Prime Cuts of Underreported News from Last Week, Hand-Picked and Lightly Seasoned by Chuck Shepherd
December 9, 2013
(datelines November 30-December 7) (links correct as of December 8)
India’s Assembly elections last week are shaping up as referenda of apathy for major candidates, and, asked the NY Times, “What candidate could embody ‘None of the Above’ better than the eunuch Ramesh Kumar Lili?” (India’s previous star electoral eunuchs had flamed out--one turning nasty, the other way-conservative.) New York Times
Well, “Tommy” Has Got a Corpus, I Guess: One animal defender, looking to stretch NY law, filed a writ of habeas corpus . . for a monkey . . who is, actually, being treated fairly considerately by an animal rescuer searching for him a home. USA Today
Suspicions Confirmed: One Crimson Tide football fan was charged with killing another following last week’s dramatic loss to Auburn . . because the victim didn’t appear to grieve sufficiently. Associated Press via Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The NY Times Sunday Review section last week, chock full as usual of upscale punditry and amateur national and international psychoanalysis . . also found space for University of Minnesota biologist Marlene Zuk’s piece on the most challenging ways that insects copulate. (Answer: Well, you start with the organs you’re given, and the object, as always, is to get from Point A to Point B . . or, in some insects’ cases, it’s to Point C or Point D or Point E.) New York Times
No Shortage of Men Educated Beyond Their Intelligence (“Sovereigns”): These are people who once saw a sentence or a phrase in the law, and they have now irrevocably committed their lives to turning the government upside down because of it. Some get violent; some, however, are weak, and only . . cause homeowners, judges, and law enforcement dozens of hours of silly make-work. Cincinnati’s WLWT-TV website has posted 38 pages of scribblings from the mind of sovereign Robert Carr. Have a look. Robert believes that if he finds a house that’s “vacant,” it’s his. (Reality: Well, he might eventually qualify to get it, provided that a, b, c, d, e, and a few more conditions apply, which they almost never do, but Robert has no time for any of that.) WLWT-TV [click link for Documents]
Acorn, Way Far from the Tree: The lawyer-son of one of Iowa’s most distinguished attorneys is in deep trouble for defrauding a client, but even worse than that, the reason he defrauded the client was to get pump money to claim an “inheritance” that he had been notified of via e-mail from . . you got it . . Nigeria. Above The Law
Joseph Small, 20, said he’s sorry. He should not have peed on the rug at that hotel in London, and should not have gone all-racist on the Bangladeshi man. Maybe it was a reaction to Small’s discomfort . . at wearing that plunger in his own naked tush. Daily Mirror
Tone Deaf: McDonald’s gives helpful year-end budgetary advice for its employees, such as how much of their minimum-wage earnings is an appropriate tip for, say, their swimming pool cleaners. Consumerist
Some colleges are super-concerned with making gender-inquisitive students feel comfortable. Mills College (Oakland, Calif.) and Bellevue College (near Seattle) are two. Students even get to select the pronouns to which they prefer being referred--because “he” and “she” don’t cut it anymore. Associated Press via ABC News /// OpposingViews.com
Justice in India (continued): Umakant Mishra won his court case last week, and a theft charge was dropped. Mr. Mishra had been charged with stealing the equivalent of 92 cents . . in 1984 . . and had sat for 348 court hearings since then (as one of the country’s estimated 30 million pending cases). BBC News
Editor’s Envy: The Indianapolis woman told police that the man (Shawn Harvell, 34) had his penis out of his pants and was “swinging it about in a rotary helicopter motion.” [ed. Aaahhh, when I was wearing the clothes of a younger man . . .] WRTV (Indianapolis) via KERO-TV (Bakersfield, Calif.)
Updates
Recall luckless Marissa Alexander [Weird Universe, 7-21-2013]? She’s the woman who fired one warning shot at her abusive husband yet was sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for assault because the judge nitpicked her Stand Your Ground defense at the time when George Zimmerman was getting a free SYG. She’ll get a new trial and last week was released to house arrest. WJAX-TV (Jacksonville, Fla.)
The genetics-service company 23andMe [NOTW M346, 11-24-2013] is on the run from the FDA. First, they promised never to work with fertility clinics (using their client printouts of what the chances are that the clients will have such-and-such an ideal baby). Now, they won’t even start warning clients about potential health issues with their babies because they aren’t qualified, FDA thinks). [ed. Kinda ruins the weird-news value; I wish the FDA’d consult with me on these things.] Washington Post
Your Weekly Jury Duty
[In America, you're presumed innocent . . . until the mug shot is released]
Jeana Smart, 26, might have tried to hide a glass meth pipe in a sensitive bodily organ, where it broke. (Jeana’s lawyer would be warning you right now: Do not infer her guilt as a meth-user by the photo of Jeana, 36. After all, she can't help it that she's 46.) The Smoking Gun via KBYZ Radio (Bismarck, N.D.)
The ravages of meth might also have touched Gary Beatty, 38, charged in Daytona Beach with making the stuff. (The Fark tagline, which cannot be improved upon, was “Old and busted: faces of meth. New hotness: haircuts of meth.”) WESH-TV (Orlando)
Editor's Note
The annual Bad Sex awards are out for 2013. London’s The Independent and Daily Telegraph have some excerpts. Winner: “Surely supernovas explode that instant, somewhere, in some galaxy. The hut vanishes, and with it the sea and the sands--only Karun’s body, locked with mine, remains. We streak like superheroes past suns and solar systems, we dive through shoals of quarks and atomic nuclei. In celebration of our breakthrough fourth star, statisticians the world over rejoice.” And, jeez, even the great Woody Guthrie got caught, in the novel House of Earth: “And inside the door of her womb she felt her inner organs and tissues, all her muscles and glands, felt them roll, squeeze, squeeze, and roll, and felt that every inch of her whole being stretched, reached, felt out, felt in, felt all around the shape of his penis.” Owww! Hard, Ain’t It Hard, indeed! The Independent /// Daily Telegraph
Newsrangers: Gary DaSilva, and the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.
Posted By: Chuck - Mon Dec 09, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category:
The Snowmobile Song
It's the start of that glorious season when snowmobilers intersect barbed wire, plunge off cliffs, and crack thin ice over bottomless lakes.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Dec 09, 2013 -
Comments (3)
Category: Motor Vehicles, Music, Seasonal
December 8, 2013
Fear of Phobias
You should be able to amuse and educate yourself for some time at the Phobia List site.
Here are some of my new favorites.
Fear of chickens: Alektorophobia.
Fear of dust: Amathophobia or Koniophobia.
Fear of nosebleeds: Epistaxiophobia.
Fear of virgins or young girls: Parthenophobia.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 08, 2013 -
Comments (16)
Category: Mental Health and Insanity
Taxidermied Deer in Garbage Can
Posted By: Alex - Sun Dec 08, 2013 -
Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Taxidermy
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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 |
