Weird Universe Archive
October 2019
October 11, 2019
The Swastika Chromosomes of D.F. Jones
D.F. Jones
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Posted By: Alex - Fri Oct 11, 2019 -
Comments (0)
Category: Science, 1940s, Pareidolia
Mystery Gadget 81
I have blanked out the corporate logo on this device, but not otherwise altered the foto. What is this kit for? Hint: it establishes a standard measure.
The answer is here.
Or after the jump.
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Posted By: Paul - Fri Oct 11, 2019 -
Comments (5)
Category: Technology
October 10, 2019
Minimum Wage Machine
Created by artist Blake Fall-Conroy:The minimum wage machine allows anybody to work for minimum wage. Turning the crank will yield one penny every 3.24 seconds, for $11.10 an hour, or NY state minimum wage (2018). If the participant stops turning the crank, they stop receiving money. The machine's mechanism and electronics are powered by the hand crank, and pennies are stored in a plexiglas box. The MWM can be reprogrammed as minimum wage changes, or for wages in different locations.
So, if this is installed in a museum, do people actually get to keep whatever money they get from it? I'm pretty sure some people would stand there cranking it all day.
Bad quality video of the machine in action:
via TYWKIWDBI
Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 10, 2019 -
Comments (3)
Category: Art, Boredom, Money
Follies of the Madmen #447
One of the rare ads of the period that objectify the male's looks.
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 10, 2019 -
Comments (0)
Category: Body, Business, Advertising, Fashion, 1960s, Men
October 9, 2019
Open Concept Bar
The Open Concept bar, recently opened in St. Louis, Missouri, doesn’t sell drinks. Instead, it sells time. Buy an hour’s worth of time at the bar, and you can drink as much as you want in that hour. The price is $10/hour for basic drinks, $20/hour for premium ones.Sounds like a bargain! But how does the bar plan to make money? Well, it turns out there actually are some limits to how much alcohol they'll serve you. From St. Louis magazine:
Anyone who’s ever attended a wedding might be wondering how you keep an open-bar concept from getting out of control. Butler says he’s put a few safety measures in place. When patrons book their time at Open Concept, they create a profile and are assigned a confirmation code, which is used to place drink orders at the bar. Bartenders will only serve one drink per person at a time, and a proprietary point-of-sale system will track consumption. Butler says the system will scan driver’s licenses and use a patron’s height and weight to assign a number of drinks per hour to keep the bar in compliance with legal limits.
In other words, you can't actually have all you can drink in an hour. But what's the limit? It seems like they're being coy about that. I'm guessing it's about two drinks per hour. So, in essence, you're pre-paying for two drinks.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Oct 09, 2019 -
Comments (5)
Category: Inebriation and Intoxicants, Restaurants, Alcohol
Space Shuttle Adventure
Be sure to listen to the Space Shuttle Theme Song starting around the 5:00 mark on Side A. "Now we need bigger ships to take us to the stars!"
Listen here.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 09, 2019 -
Comments (1)
Category: Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, 1980s
October 8, 2019
Flapper Dictionary
As defined by Wikipedia, "Flappers were a generation of young Western women in the 1920s who wore skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, smoking cigarettes, driving automobiles, treating sex in a casual manner, and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms."A "Flapper Dictionary" appeared in various newspapers and magazines in 1922. Selections below. Even more flapper terms can be found at Book Flaps and Click Americana.
New Castle Herald - Apr 1922
Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 08, 2019 -
Comments (4)
Category: Languages, Slang, Subcultures, 1920s
Marion Zioncheck, Bipolar Congressman
Congressman Marion Zioncheck , America ' s crazy MP , is in gaol at Washington after having been accused of standing on his landlady and hurling bottles and a typewriter through the windows of his wrecked Washington apartment uttering wild cries all the time . The incident occurred at the end of a whirlwind honeymoon tour . Mr . Zioncheck has just returned to America with his bride from the turbulent South American island of Porto Rico , which they were requested to leave after figuring in a series of " incidents." On one occasion the Congressman pelted passers-by with coconuts from his balcony . Then the couple arrived back in Washington they were soon involved in the dispute with the landlady , Mrs . Benjamin Young , who told the ambulance men that "Zioncheck ruined my home , called me vile names and stood on me " . It is now stated that Zioncheck intends to run for the US Vice - presidency .
Read the whole sad story--ending in suicide--here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 08, 2019 -
Comments (0)
Category: Bad Habits, Neuroses and Psychoses, Death, Government, Officials, 1930s, Mental Health and Insanity
October 7, 2019
Daily Jury Duty, #2
I'm once again shamelessly appropriating Chucky's Daily Jury Duty concept.A 16-year-old North Carolina male was recently arrested on the charge that he "unlawfully and willfully made an electronic communication to the Instagram profile 'cheeseclazone' in which he made a false statement 'with the intent to terrify.'" Specifically, he threatened to "shoot up AMC theater in Wilmington North Carolina behind Sonic at 7:50 on October 8th." The police released a photo of the subject (below).
As Chuck would say: no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot (or, in this case, Instagram photo) only. More info: Port City Daily
Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 07, 2019 -
Comments (0)
Category: Your Daily Jury Duty
Nyow! Nyot Nyow!
Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 07, 2019 -
Comments (3)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Fey, Twee, Whimsical, Naive and Sadsack, Music, Cats, 1960s, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults
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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 |
