Weird Universe Archive
January 2014
January 8, 2014
Time Travel Investigation
A study has been done to check the internet for signs of time travelers. Robert Nemiroff, physicist from Michigan Technical University, authored the study that checked a number of social media sites for posts mentioning events before they occurred. They found nothing but did say that is not conclusive. I guess it could just indicate that time travelers are discrete.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 08, 2014 -
Comments (16)
Category: Time-travel
How to Sing Hillbilly Style
Listen to the famous elegant phrasings of Jo Stafford in one of her typically stylish excursions. "Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classical training to become an opera singer," it says at the link.
Now listen to her do hillbilly. I guess good training allows mastery of any mode.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Jan 08, 2014 -
Comments (6)
Category: Music, Regionalism, 1940s, Parody
The Wave Hairdo
It was all the rage in 1962.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 08, 2014 -
Comments (6)
Category: 1960s, Hair and Hairstyling
January 7, 2014
Pastafarians Advance
This is a picture of Christopher Schaffer, a Pastafarian minister, being sworn in as a town councilman in Pomfret, NY. All hail the church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster as it gains power and presence in American politics.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 07, 2014 -
Comments (8)
Category: Religion
Pocket Change
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 07, 2014 -
Comments (5)
Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Money, Europe, Seventeenth Century
Exploding Artichokes
Police have ruled out any kind of artichoke-themed terrorism, theorizing instead that fertilizers on the vegetable may have caused an explosive chemical reaction.
Strangely, this is just the latest in a series of exploding artichokes that have gone off in Italy. Previous incidents occurred in 2003 and 2008. [theregister.co.uk]
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 07, 2014 -
Comments (8)
Category: Food, Vegetables
January 6, 2014
An engineer in 1964 looks to the future
From the Hattiesburg American - Feb 18, 1964
Many of the engineers' dreams are soon to become realities. Plans are now under way for twin 110-story towers in New York City which will dwarf the Empire State Building. The tunnel under the English Channel now seems assured. Covered, air-conditioned baseball stadiums are being built to do away with the need for rain checks. And the engineers soon hope to place a man on the moon, the first major step toward the exploration of our own galaxy and the galaxies beyond.
He got all this correct!
Fifty years from now some writer will look back and reflect that the in the 60's an engineer who dreamed of the weekend trip to Mars, the University of Space located on Jupiter, the completely automated home where housework consisted of pushing buttons, the aerial highways and helicars, and other commplace things in the year 2014 was considered a "screwball" by his fellow citizens.
An automated home is the closest to being a reality. The rest of it—not even close.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 06, 2014 -
Comments (5)
Category: Predictions, Yesterday’s Tomorrows, 1960s
News of the Weird / Pro Edition (January 6, 2014)
News of the Weird Pro EditionAngst, Confusion, Cynicism, Ridicule
Prime Cuts of Recent Underreported News, Hand-Picked and Lightly Seasoned by Chuck Shepherd
January 6, 2014
(datelines December 14-January 4) (links correct as of January 5)
Tevin Monroe, 31, seeking work at a Norfolk, Va., McD’s, requested an application from the manager, who told Tevin he could download the form online, whereupon Tevin, disappointed, allegedly pointed to his waistband--and his piece. Manager found him an application. WVEC-TV (Norfolk)
From the Athens-Clarke County (Ga.) police blotter, 9 a.m., 12-18-2013: Guy took a swing at a big-rig driver because . . driver had backed up and accidentally clipped a porta-john . . interrupting the guy, inside, who was being busy. Athens Banner-Herald
Kevin Cook told New York City police that an armed mugger snatched his phone [a flip-phone], looked at it, said “what the [f] is this?” and gave it back to him. Cook said, jeez, it wasn’t that old. New York Post
Do the Math: Two chicks at a Sydney, Australia, minimum-security prison hatched a tie-the-sheets-together escape plot, but guards busted it when they found the link (nearly 60 feet long). But Emu Plains Correctional is a 1-story facility; the outer perimeter is just a fence. Daily Telegraph (Sydney)
French Exceptionalism: A local social welfare office in Loemiquelic, Frawnts, notified the Mamm-Kounifl bar that it was being fined for its longstanding tradition whereby patrons voluntarily bussed their own tables. That would be “undeclared labor” benefiting Mamm-Kounifl, and the French will have none of that. The Local (Paris)
Here’s your proof . . that when dogs poop, they squat along the Earth’s north-south-axis magnetic field. Seriously, it says here. Frontiers in Zoology
Recurring: NOTW readers already know that when outside investors consider Iceland, they must be sensitive to the country’s hidden elves so as not to rile the believers (estimated to be as many as a third). The Associated Press reports now that environmentalists consider the elves allies when the tree-huggers need to stop some trampling of Iceland’s natural beauty. Apparently, the elves don't even need lobbyists or PACs. Associated Press via NBC News /// NOTW .M107 (4-26-2009)
Can’t Possibly Be True: A Facebook photo led police to an apartment in Greenville, S.C., to an extraordinarily lazy man named Tyler Smith, who was arrested. The photo showed Smith lowering his dog by rope from a second-story window, which Smith said was to, well, let the little mutt find the north-south axis. Associated Press via Spartanburg Herald-Journal
Update: Fuhrer-wannabe Heath Campbell, 40, had another Aryan urchin (his 9th, by 5 mommas), and as little Eva Braun Campbell was emerging, Pennsylvania child welfare officials snatched her up. New York Daily News /// NOTW .M098 (2-22-2009) /// NOTW .M246 (12-25-2011)
TMI: Newly-elected corruption-fighting minister Arvind Kejriwal of New Delhi, “true to [his] vow of transparency,” called in sick the first day--explaining that he had diarrhea. Agence France-Presse via South China Morning Post
Of Course: A handcuffed Douglas Lydic, 29, who fled a police cruiser in Commodore, Pa., was charged with escape, plus theft of handcuffs. Associated Press via PoliceOne.com
Too Clever By Half: Cops were called on two Los Angeles home-invaders, who were still on the scene when police arrived outside. The perps (who’ve seen the same movies you’ve seen) persuaded the victim-residents to tie them up, too, so that when cops entered, they’d think the perps were actually victims. Victims said, Sure. Perps appeared shocked that as soon as the cops walked through the door, the victims ratted them out (and by then of course the perps could not take off because . . they were tied up). Los Angeles Times
YouTube Video Converted to “News” by Gawker: It’s supposed to be a genuine South African video of indigenous Venda people doing “traditional” bare-knuckle “Musangwe” fighting. One guy knocks out another guy, who is revived by the traditional first-aid of . . genital massage. Gawker.com
Welshman Leon Humphreys, 60, spurning a plea on his traffic ticket, demanded his right to fistfight for his freedom (“trial by combat”) under ancient Welsh law. (Denied.) Daily Telegraph (London)
Can’t Possibly Be True: Homeland Security confiscated and destroyed 13 handmade wood flutes that Canadian-American virtuoso Boujemaa Razgui brought in through Logan Airport. (Officials: Ya can’t bring “agriculture” in without special permission.) Boston Globe
False Choice: Big Pharma needs to recoup its super-enormous research and testing costs for life-saving drugs, and therefore it’s fair that they charge whatever super-enormous price they come up with; to deny them that is to shut down life-saving-drug research. Ummmm . . well, just because the company says it needs X retail price (never dare showing the bookkeeping, of course) doesn’t mean all the incentives wouldn’t remain in place even if the price were somewhat, or a lot, lower than X. Say hello to Sovaldi, which can actually cure deadly Hep-C for 3 million Americans at a straight cost of about $250 per but for which Gilead Sciences figures it deserves $84,000 each (with discounts for some 3rd-worlders). (Reporter: Mightn’t you cut the price once you’ve recouped your costs? Gilead official: “That’s very unlikely we would do that. [However] I appreciate the thought.”) NPR
Newsrangers: Craig Cryer, Kent Harris, and David Wasley, and the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.
Posted By: Chuck - Mon Jan 06, 2014 -
Comments (20)
Category:
Cold Outside
Where Fahrenheit and Celsius meet, -41 degrees, is the temperature folks were enduring on the second day of the new year in northern Ontario, Canada. One person decided to amuse themselves with the weather by shooting boiling water out of a super soaker into the frigid air. The effect is rather cool.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 06, 2014 -
Comments (9)
Category: Experiments
January 5, 2014
Space Lady
Interview here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 05, 2014 -
Comments (3)
Category: Eccentrics, Music, Outsider Art
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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 |
