Weird Universe Archive
November 2014
November 17, 2014
Seal On Penguin Lovin’
On some islands in the sub-Antarctic fur seals have been observed having sex with penguins. That is how researchers describe it but it sounds more like rape, especially considering that in some cases the seal then eats the penguin. Penguins must love those guys that club seals for their fur.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Nov 17, 2014 -
Comments (8)
Category: Sexuality
The Jake Bird Hex
From Wikipedia:
After his conviction was announced, Bird was allowed to make a final statement. He spoke for 20 minutes, noting that his request to represent himself had been denied and that his own lawyers were against him.
Bird then said, “I’m putting the Jake Bird hex on all of you who had anything to do with my being punished. Mark my words you will die before I do.” Allegedly, six people connected with the trial died: Judge Edward D. Hodge of a heart attack within a month of sentencing him to death, as did one of the officers who took his first confession. A police officer who took a second confession died, as did the court’s chief clerk, and one of Bird's prison guards. J.W. Selden, one of Bird’s lawyers, died on the first anniversary of his sentencing.
Bird then said, “I’m putting the Jake Bird hex on all of you who had anything to do with my being punished. Mark my words you will die before I do.” Allegedly, six people connected with the trial died: Judge Edward D. Hodge of a heart attack within a month of sentencing him to death, as did one of the officers who took his first confession. A police officer who took a second confession died, as did the court’s chief clerk, and one of Bird's prison guards. J.W. Selden, one of Bird’s lawyers, died on the first anniversary of his sentencing.
Modesto Bee - Nov 27, 1948
Posted By: Alex - Mon Nov 17, 2014 -
Comments (5)
Category: Death, Scary Criminals, 1940s
Paris Sweepstakes
Boring pep talk from a CEO segues into a husband's foreign sex fantasies. That's a sweepstakes promotion!
Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 17, 2014 -
Comments (3)
Category: Contests, Races and Other Competitions, Advertising, 1960s, Europe
November 16, 2014
News of the Weird, November 16, 2014
News of the WeirdWeirdnuz.M397, November 16, 2014
Copyright 2014 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
Lead Story
The Other World Series: In October, another premier world sports events reached its climax, with one team left standing, rewarded for months of grueling practices, to the cheers of adoring, frenzied fans. The “world series” of professional team computer games was settled on a stage in a packed, 40,000-seat stadium in Seoul before three gigantic TV screens and an Internet audience of millions. The powerhouse Samsung White team out-mouse-and-keyboarded the Chinese Starhorn Royal team at “League of Legends” (which 27 million gamers, worldwide, play every day) using its fantasy characters to destroy opponents’ bases. The winning team took home $1 million of corporate money, but future earnings should escalate when idolized world-class players unionize and swing merchandising endorsement deals. [New York Times, 10-19-2014; Playboy, November 2014]
Can’t Possibly Be True
Carnell Alexander at one point owed about $60,000 in child support for a kid he did not father (according to a DNA test) and knew nothing about, but despite “successfully” challenging the claim 20 years ago, he still owes about $30,000. The mother who accused him long ago admitted lying (in that naming a “father” was necessary to get welfare benefits), and while a judge thus wiped out Alexander’s debt to her, the state of Michigan nonetheless still demands that Alexander repay benefits it had paid to the mother. [WXYZ-TV (Detroit), 10-27-2014]
America’s largest pornography website, PornHub.com, decided recently to erect a public billboard prominently encouraging the use of its service, first selecting as its location the New York City neighborhood formerly the smut epicenter of the city in Times Square. However, that area is now respectably tourist-friendly, and the billboard had to be relocated--to Los Angeles’s West Hollywood, near the headquarters of PornHub’s parent, MindGeek. The sign features a person’s two thumbs and two index fingers forming a rough version of a heart, beside the message (inspired by a Beatles song), “All You Need Is Hand.” [LA Weekly, 10-31-2014]
Brits Behaving Britishly Bad
(1) Literature professor Thomas Docherty was back at work in October following his nine-month suspension from the University of Warwick for “inappropriate sighing” during meetings with a senior colleague, along with “making ironic comments” and “negative body language.” (2) In October, Andrew Davies, 51, was ordered by magistrates in High Wycombe, England, not to lie down in public places anymore (unless genuinely stricken by emergency). Previously, he had a habit of making bogus “999" (911) calls to get attention, and when police confiscated his phone, he began compensating by lying in roads until compassionate passersby called for ambulances. [Daily Telegraph, 10-24-2014] [Daily Mirror, 10-30-2014]
The New Math
More than six million students have downloaded the new iPhone app, PhotoMath, to solve Algebra I and Algebra II problems by pointing the phone’s camera at a printed equation. The answer, and the explanation, quickly appear on a screen, as a teaching tool--or for the students to show “their” work if PhotoMath is used on exam questions. The Croatian-based developer told the Quartz website in October that it is working on upgrades for higher-level math equations (though no relief is in sight for those chronically pesky “word problems”). Meanwhile, the debate has been triggered over whether PhotoMath is a dynamic technological advance in education--or a cheating-enabler. [Quartz, 10-31-2014; CultofMac.com, 11-7-2014]
Bright Ideas
Neighbors in the Mandarin neighborhood of Jacksonville, Fla., complained to the city recently about a resident who scattered hundreds of mothballs--over 400 now, at least--around her front yard, even driving over them in her car to crush them open and extend their noxious odor. The National Pesticide Information Center warned that the mothballs were hazards to plants, wildlife, water, and air, but the female resident (unnamed in a report by First Coast News) said she was forced into the tactic in order to prevent neighborhood dogs from defecating in her yard. [First Coast News (Jacksonville), 10-27-2014]
Celebrity Musicals: In September in Hamburg, Germany, “Charles Manson: Summer of Hate--The Musical,” opened at the Thalia Theater, covering the influences and failed musical career of the man convicted in the notorious 1969 Sharon Tate murders. And “I Am Stephon Marbury,” a musical featuring the former star NBA basketball player, ran for 11 nights September in Beijing, where the popular Marbury has led the Beijing Ducks to national basketball championships the last two seasons. Marbury has a role onstage in what is described as a parable about pursuing one’s dreams. [Los Angeles Times, 10-1-2014; New York Times, 8-28-2014]
The most challenging toys this holiday season might be the series of furry human innards from the U.S. firm I Heart Guts--not just the soft and cuddly pancreas, brain, and prostate but especially the rectum and anus. Each part is packaged with a cheekily-written educational description explaining its importance (the rectum being “the butt of many jokes” yet with “a serious role” in waste disposal as the “fecal loading dock”), and each sells for about $20. [Yahoo News, 11-6-2014]
Weird Scenes
(1) Richard Shear, 28, was arrested in Muskegon County, Mich., in October after an apparent violent episode with his mother and girlfriend. Shear had allegedly threatened the two, slashed an SUV tire, and tried to burn down their home with gasoline and a lit candle--but then when it was time to flee the premises, hopped on his moped, ensuring his flight from police would be a short one. (2) A woman (described only as “robust”) in Darmstadt, Germany, fled with the equivalent of about $125 from a pharmacy in October and is still at large. According to the police report, she swiped money from two cash registers by twice lifting her shirt and squirting breast milk at a clerk as a diversion. [WXMI-TV (Grand Rapids, Mich.), 10-27-2014] [The Local (Berlin), 10-28-2014]
The District of Calamity
The Washington, D.C., school system last year declared Avery Gagliano, 13, an habitual truant whose parents somehow require special training to ensure her attendance. The 8th-grader was a straight-A student at Alice Deal Middle School but also a piano prodigy selected for prestigious world exhibitions--which caused her to exceed the maximum-10 “unexcused” absences that trigger the assignment of a truancy officer and a series of relentless threats against the parents (which ultimately provoked them to withdraw Avery and this season to home-school her). (In October, following a Washington Post account, D.C.’s governing Council honored Avery in a public ceremony, and the D.C. Schools Chancellor overnight began begging the Gagliardos to bring Avery and her suddenly-“excused” absences back to school.) [Washington Post, 9-8-2014, 10-7-2014]
The Aristocrats!
(1) Sean Johnson, 19, was arrested in Brooksville, Fla., in October at the Walmart after he was spotted at about 3 p.m. taking a toy stuffed horse into the bedding department and masturbating with it. (2) Paul Mountain, 38, pleaded guilty to burglary in Darwen, England, in October--accused by a homeowner whose shed was vandalized. Among the damaged items was a teddy bear streaked with semen. Mountain told officers that he was coming down off of an amphetamine high and “felt overwhelming need for sexual relief.” [WFLA-TV (Tampa), 10-14-2014] [Lancashire Telegraph, 10-11-2014]
Least Competent Criminals
Daniel Rice, 21, on the lam from jailers in Muscatine, Iowa, found himself in nearby Rock Island, Ill., according to his 911 call to emergency personnel there. Rice had made his way to the Loud Thunder Forest Preserve, where he thought he could safely hole up, but reported that he was being chased by a pack of wild coyotes and begged for help. [WQAD-TV (Davenport, Iowa), 10-24-2014]
Jamie Brown, 29, stole a fish tank from a hardware store in Leeds, England, in August (thus violating a previous hardware-store stayaway order) and made a run for it, but had to be rescued by police and emergency personnel after he stopped to urinate in a bush--and, inadvertently, directly onto a wasps’ nest. Police said he later spent six very unpleasant hours at Leeds General Infirmary. [Daily Mirror (London), 8-12-2014]
Thanks This Week to Robert Zimmer and Cindy Hildebrand, and to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.
Posted By: Chuck - Sun Nov 16, 2014 -
Comments (6)
Category:
March of the Donkeychimp
By the American musician Ralph Carney. I hadn't heard of him before stumbling upon this odd video, but apparently he's considered "an integral part of the indie music scene," and has collaborated with artists such as Tom Waits, the B-52s, and The Black Keys. There's a documentary about him in the works, titled "This is Ralph Carney."
Posted By: Alex - Sun Nov 16, 2014 -
Comments (4)
Category: Music
Nervine
What exactly were the ingredients of Nervine that made it sell effectively for many decades?
Read all about it here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Nov 16, 2014 -
Comments (7)
Category: Medicine, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century
November 15, 2014
Olympian Swimmer Ann Curtis Races a Seal
Original article here.
PS: the seal won.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 15, 2014 -
Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Contests, Races and Other Competitions, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, 1940s
Satanic Coloring Book
I've posted before about unusual coloring books, such as the E.F. Hutton Coloring Book and the Anti-Terrorism Coloring Book, so when a coloring book titled The Satanic Children's Big Book of Activities showed up in the news, it caught my eye.A group called the Satanic Temple wants to hand out copies of this coloring book to children in Florida schools, arguing that Christian evangelical groups are allowed to distribute bibles and booklets in public schools, so why shouldn't they be allowed to distribute their satanic literature. Equal time for all religions, etc. Of course, there's no way in hell the school board is going to let this happen. [foxkc.com]
Posted By: Alex - Sat Nov 15, 2014 -
Comments (7)
Category: Religion, Books
November 14, 2014
Nuclear Detergent
Willard Libby is best known as the winner of the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded for his role in developing radiocarbon dating. But throughout the 1950s and 60s he was also a tireless promoter of nuclear energy, assuring the public that fears about radioactivity and nuclear fallout were greatly overblown. One of his ideas for a beneficial use of radiation was to radiate laundry detergent. As far as I know, no detergent maker ever got behind this idea.
Source: Newsweek - Jan 13, 1964
Posted By: Alex - Fri Nov 14, 2014 -
Comments (7)
Category: Science, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1960s
Tipu’s Tiger
Fascinating article here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Nov 14, 2014 -
Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Art, Death, Dictators, Tyrants and Other Harsh Rulers, Puppets and Automatons, 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 |
