August 2022
August 7, 2022
Army’s Copper Man
The Copper Man was created in the 1950s by Army scientists to test clothing for soldiers. I think the tubes going into his eyes makes him horror-movie material.
Santa Cruz Sentinel - May 17, 1962
In 1956 Havoline Motor Oil featured him in an ad. As far as I can tell, Havoline wasn't used in the Copper Man. The only connection between the two was that, according to Havoline, the Copper Man "thinks for itself" and so does its motor oil.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Aug 07, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: AI, Robots and Other Automatons, 1950s
Death by Swan
I had always heard that swans could be vicious, but not to the point of murdering a human. And yet from the 1938 report to the present day, it happens.1938 article source: The Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee) 15 May 1938, Sun Page 41
A second example from the same article.
Full article associated with pic below.
Source of clip below.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 07, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Death, Lakes, Ponds, Rivers, Streams, Swamps and Other Bodies of Fresh Water
August 6, 2022
Atomic Victory Trotter
Seems that everyone called him 'Mike' instead of 'Atomic Victory.' But even so, all his official documents must have had his name listed as 'Atomic Victory Trotter'.
Wilmington Morning News - Nov 17, 1945
Louisville Courier-Journal - Aug 14, 1953
Posted By: Alex - Sat Aug 06, 2022 -
Comments (3)
Category: Odd Names, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1940s
Medicine, Mind and Music
Player embedded below the Tracklist. Enjoy!
Posted By: Paul - Sat Aug 06, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Medicine, Music, 1970s, Brain
August 5, 2022
What does your name smell like?
Henry Gray of Newcastle suffers from "lexical-gustatory synaesthesia," which means that he experiences people's names as smells or tastes. He says that the name 'Kirsty' smells of urine, and 'Duncan' is "like a bird dipped in smoky bacon crisps."Makes me wonder what my name would smell like. I'm sure it's not anything good.
More info: Daily Mail
Posted By: Alex - Fri Aug 05, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Odd Names, Smells and Odors
The Amazing Acro-Cats
Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 05, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Entertainment, Freaks, Oddities, Quirks of Nature, Cats
August 4, 2022
Lactation Cookies
'Lactation Cookies' are cookies that supposedly help to boost milk production in nursing mothers. Recipes vary, but the main ingredient seems to be oatmeal. So, they're essentially oatmeal cookies.I heard about them for the first time yesterday, but they've been around for a number of decades. The oldest reference to them I could find was in a 1974 zoo keepers journal discussing ways to increase milk production in orangutans. However, interest in them has spiked in the last decade, and there are now bakeries that specialize in making them, such as here and here.
Do lactation cookies actually work? The jury is still out on that question. Wikipedia, in its article on galactogogues (lactation inducers), notes that "Herbals and foods used as galactogogues have little or no scientific evidence of efficacy." But on the other hand, what harm can an oatmeal cookie do? And maybe they'd work via the placebo effect.
Incidentally, Guinness beer has also long been rumored to induce lactation and was often given to nursing mothers in Ireland.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 04, 2022 -
Comments (5)
Category: Babies, Food, Body Fluids, Pregnancy
RIP David Bawden, aka Pope Michael
An innocuous obit.Full article here.
His Wikipedia page says:
He stated in 2009 that he had approximately 30 "solid followers".[2] In 1990 Bawden was elected pope by a group of six laypeople, including himself and his parents, who had come to believe that the Catholic Church had apostatized from the Catholic faith since Vatican II, and that there had been no legitimate popes elected since the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958.[3] In 2011, he was ordained a priest and consecrated a bishop by an Independent Catholic bishop
Posted By: Paul - Thu Aug 04, 2022 -
Comments (1)
Category: Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Religion, North America
August 3, 2022
Walking across the Australian desert to prove that God exists
1985: Six young Christians, carrying only "a Swiss army knife, adhesive bandages, cigarette lighters and three Bibles," set out to walk over one thousand miles across Australia's Nullarbor desert in order to "prove God exists." They were later joined by a 41-year-old man.They did so "in defiance of police warnings that the walk was dangerous, and complaints of blasphemy from religious leaders."
They made it. So they avoided winning a Darwin Award, though going on a hike in a desert without water would definitely put anyone in the running for one.
Port Huron Times Herald - May 18, 1985
"On the last leg of their trek: Rachel Sukumaran (12), Christine McKay (15), Dane Frick (42), Robin Dunn (19), Roland Gianstefani (22), Gary McKay (16) and Malcolm Wrest (22)."
Sydney Morning Herald - June 30, 1985
Posted By: Alex - Wed Aug 03, 2022 -
Comments (3)
Category: Religion, Stupidity, 1980s
Artwork Khrushchev Probably Would Not Have Liked 45
Karl Hubbuch 1881-1979 "Dialog (Myriam with cat)" c 1953
The artist's Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Aug 03, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Art, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Cats, 1950s
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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 |
