April 2024
April 10, 2024
Song about the human dimensions of the oceans
From the YouTube description:The singer really pulls out all the stops starting about 45 seconds in. But I'm stumped about what scientific concepts the song is expressing. Is the singer trying to sound like a humpback whale?
Posted By: Alex - Wed Apr 10, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Music, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Science
Mr. Squiggle
All is explained at the Wikipedia page.Weird as the newer version is, the 1950s show was even weirder. Go to this link, for a non-embeddable sample.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Apr 10, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Art, Puppets and Automatons, Television, Space Travel, Australia, Twentieth Century
April 9, 2024
Flo Motion
Flo Motion was a brief-lived exercise fad in the early 1990s. The idea was to get in shape by swinging a bag of water around.Seems like a bit of a gimmick, which I suppose is why the fad didn't last long.
Spokane Chronicle - Sep 25, 1991
Melbourne Age - Jun 16, 1991
Escondido Times-Advocate - Mar 8, 1991
Posted By: Alex - Tue Apr 09, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Exercise and Fitness, 1990s
Trick Chair
Bang! And down goes the victim!Full patent here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Apr 09, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Clubs, Fraternities and Other Self-selecting Organizations, Patents, 1900s, Pranks
April 8, 2024
Harmonica Record
Obscure world record: longest time playing the harmonica while sitting in a chair balanced on top of three wine bottles. Set by Michel Perrigaud in 1959, who played for seven-and-a-half hours.
Albuquerque Journal - Jan 29, 1959
Posted By: Alex - Mon Apr 08, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Music, World Records, 1950s
Resonating Life Which Continues to Stand
The artwork's homepage, which explains:The resonating ovoids continue to stand wherever they are. The ovoids continue to stand even if they are pushed over by waves, blown by the wind, or pushed by people. When an ovoid is pushed over, it rises back up on its own and shines brightly as it produces a tone. The light and tone continues to resonate out to other ovoids and trees nearby.
If a wave of light comes from afar, it signifies the presence of people, waves, or wind there. People gain a heightened sense of awareness of the existence of other people in the same space and the environment.
When it is quiet and the wind is not blowing and the people nearby are not interacting with the ovoids, their lights begin to flicker slowly.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Apr 08, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Art, Asia, Twenty-first Century
April 7, 2024
Eclectric Oil
Dr. Thomas' Eclectric Oil was widely sold as a cure-all in the second half of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth. This was even though, as Wikipedia notes, it "mostly contained common ingredients such as turpentine and camphor oil."Some of the things it supposedly cured included rheumatism, lame backs, sore throats, coughs and colds, throat and lung disease, and asthma. It could even cure "chicken flesh wounds" (see ad below).
Wikipedia notes that the name Eclectric Oil was "likely a portmanteau of the words 'eclectic' and 'electric', alluding to the then-popular belief that electricity had curative powers." Of course, the oil was not electric in any way.
image source: wellcome collection
Canadian Poultry Review - Apr 1926
Posted By: Alex - Sun Apr 07, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Nineteenth Century
When Dogs Fly
Posted By: Paul - Sun Apr 07, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Innocent Bystanders, Passersby, Witnesses and Accidental Victims, Children, Dogs, 1900s
April 6, 2024
Humanised Trufood
Make sure your food has been humanised...
Daily Telegraph - Jan 28, 1937
Post-Graduate Medical Journal - June 1935
Posted By: Alex - Sat Apr 06, 2024 -
Comments (6)
Category: Babies, Food, Advertising, 1930s
Purple Earthquake
Their Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Apr 06, 2024 -
Comments (3)
Category: Music, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, Psychedelic, 1960s
| Get WU Posts by Email | |
|---|---|
| Who We Are |
|---|
| 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 |
