Category:
Animals
Animals
Follies of the Mad Men #40
There's nothing oddball about this ad--except its incredible lameness! Look at those stupid birds that dominate three-quarters of the page. What do they tell the reader about the product? Absolutely nothing! This full-page ad could have run as a tiny spot with the same text at the back of the magazine for a fraction of the cost. And it would have achieved the same results.
Imagine the malicious glee at the ad agency that created this: "We just grossed a hundred K for two blotches of paint!"
Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 27, 2008 -
Comments (12)
Category: Animals, Business, Advertising, 1960s
Vampire Squid
Suppose you could take your lips and stretch them out to cover up your entire body.......like the Vampire Squid.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 15, 2008 -
Comments (11)
Category: Animals, Horror
Land Without Bread
According to Wikipedia, Luis Buñuel is "one of the most important directors in the history of cinema." His most notorious film is the 1929 Un chien andalou (An Andalusian Dog) which includes the infamous scene of a woman's eyeball being sliced with a razor in slow-motion. This is the one film of his that the professor discussed in the film class I took in college.Much less well-known is his 1932 Las Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pan (Land without bread). The film is a short travelogue about the poverty-stricken Las Hurdes region of Spain. What makes the film unusual is that as one scene of misery after another appears onscreen, the narration proceeds in a "flat and disinterested manner" and Brahms's Symphony No. 4 plays as background music. Some historians argue that the film was actually the very first mockumentary, parodying the documentary form.
The film can be seen in its entirety on YouTube, but not in English. I'm not sure if there is an English-language version of it. The only scene in English I could find was the one below, in which a goat supposedly trips and falls off a cliff. In reality, Buñuel's crew shot the goat and threw its body down the cliff. This was in the days before PETA. YouTube includes a "Warning: Animal Abuse" label with the excerpt. As a student of the weird, I've become pretty much shockproof, but if the sight of a goat plummeting down a cliff will disturb you, you might want to skip the video.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Oct 10, 2008 -
Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Movies, Documentaries
Animated Hitch Critters
They also come in Bass, Dog, Duck, and Motorcycle-Riding Pig.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 09, 2008 -
Comments (11)
Category: Animals, Business, Products, Cryptozoology, Inventions, Chindogu, Statues, Monuments and Memorials, Foreign Customs, Trucks
Bigfoot Lawn Statue
Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 08, 2008 -
Comments (8)
Category: Aliens, Animals, Business, Products, Cryptozoology, Fictional Monsters, Human Marvels, Statues, Monuments and Memorials, Chindogu
A Sleeping Dog
In 1965 the French neurophysiologist Michel Jouvet operated on 35 cats, creating lesions in a part of their brainstem called the locus coeruleus. The operation caused no visible difference in their waking behavior, but their behavior while sleeping changed dramatically. They would stalk, leap, and pounce on imaginary prey -- while completely asleep. Jouvet concluded that the locus coeruleus is responsible for suppressing muscle activity during sleep. Damage it, and you act out your dreams.That's the scientific explanation of the phenomenon, which is a long way of introducing this video of a dog "running" while asleep. Evidently the dog doesn't have a fully functioning locus coeruleus.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 05, 2008 -
Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Science
Weird Horses
Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 02, 2008 -
Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Photography and Photographers, Science, Books
Tongue Jutting
The FiveThirtyEight blog noted the frequency with which McCain stuck out his tongue during last Friday's debate. The behavior is known as "tongue jutting." It's a well-known "tell" that professional interrogators and poker players look for. According to retired FBI agent Joe Navarro, this is what it means:Tongue-jutting behavior is a gesture used by people who think they have gotten away with something or are “caught” doing something... This behavior has several meanings – depending on specific situations – but is usually associated with one of these: I got caught (taking candy from a drawer), gleeful excitement (look at what I just did, Mom), I got away with something (and I didn’t get caught), I did something foolish, or I am naughty.
I'll add that tongue jutting (or tongue protrusion) is also a behavior often seen in the animal world. Reptologists have developed the "tongue flick attack score" which is "a common method for quantifying predatory behavior in squamate reptiles." A higher score (i.e. more tongue flicks) indicates a greater predatory response.
Tongue protrusion is also a form of sociosexual behavior that has been observed in nocturnal Owl Monkeys. It is part of a range of mating behavior that includes lip-smacking, squinting, partner-marking, and urine-drinking.
So the question is, was McCain's tongue jutting more reptilian or primate? i.e. was it more predatory in nature, or sociosexual? I'll leave that to you readers to decide.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Oct 01, 2008 -
Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Psychology
Fecal Scoring System
Don't you wish that the Purina pet food company would issue a handy chart by which to grade your dog's poop? Well, your wish has come true!Visit the hidden portion of this post, if you have a high tolerance for pictures of dog poop.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 25, 2008 -
Comments (21)
Category: Animals, Pets, Dogs, Scatology, Excrement
Pig Farms
Sure, we all love bacon! But who wants to live next to a pig farm? Not these folks in Massachusetts, who, according to today's Boston Globe (registration required), suffer smells like those "at the bottom of a dumpster." But this new Congressional report finds the EPA ready to relax their rules for such farms.
Here's an article about a manure lagoon spill in 2005 that released 3 million gallons of pig poop!
Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 24, 2008 -
Comments (12)
Category: Agriculture, Animals, Bathrooms, Disasters, Food, Scatology, Lawsuits, Excrement
| Who We Are |
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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, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. 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. Contact Us |