Loss of Comments

Friends--thanks to the alertness of one of our core WU-vies, Messr. Dumbfounded, we have learned of a grievous but ineluctable Comments Implosion.

When Alex reconfigured the site and banished all the spammers, he implicitly authorized a purge of all past comments made by non-registered commenters.

A goodly number of those comments came from honest readers who had just not bothered to register. They were part of the legitimate conversation concerning previous posts.

Now they're irretrievably wiped.

We regret this accidental purge. Fully half of the pleasures of this site lies in the conversation following each post. We were thrilled to have this conversation archived for the enjoyment of all readers.

But if you recall the horrible spam problem, there seemed to be no other solution.

For now, we are still allowing comments by unregistered folks. We don't want to put up any extra barriers between readers and their public responses. But comments from unregistered folks are always less secure than those from registered WU-vies.

Thanks for your understanding and continued support.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 16, 2012 - Comments (6)
Category: Weird Universe, Alex, Reader Recommendation

What’s Changed?

Anyone who can spot something different about the homepage today wins a one-year free subscription to Weird Universe!

But in all seriousness, it's been 3 or 4 years since the site design was refreshed, so we thought it was time to tweak things a little. Biggest change was to make the top banner smaller, so that everything could be moved up a bit. The left column for the blog posts has also been made wider. Bit of color has been added to the background, etc.

Hope the new look doesn't upset the regulars too much. I'll soon get around to applying the changes to the rest of the site (comment pages, etc.), unless there's a massive protest and everyone demands the old design come back.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Mar 06, 2012 - Comments (17)
Category: Weird Universe

Get Your WU Fix by Email

Over the weekend, I added a form to the right sidebar that allows you to get daily WU updates by email. So if you happen to forget to visit WU, no worries. We'll magically appear in your inbox.

The delivery is made by Feedburner -- which, in turn, is owned by Google. Plenty of other sites use Feedburner. It's actually one of those features I should have added to the site years ago, but better late than never.

Feedburner promises they'll never give your email address to spammers, and I've never heard any complaints about the service in that regard. I have read some complaints about the service being a bit glitchy, but we'll deal with that issue when and if it arises. I tested it over the weekend, and it all seems to be working as it should.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 20, 2012 - Comments (2)
Category: Weird Universe

Floating Volcano

Change of plans for the first WU cruise. The Kate Gosselin cruise is out. Instead we'll be sailing on the Tropical Island Paradise, built by Yacht Island Design. It features its own volcano! Once a day the volcano will erupt, shooting out deadly fireballs and streams of lava.

Of course, we'll have to wait for the ship to be built...

(via Nourishing Obscurity)

Posted By: Alex - Tue Feb 07, 2012 - Comments (5)
Category: Fairs, Amusement Parks, and Resorts, Weird Universe

Cardiff Giant in search of temporary home

A few weeks ago, over at the Museum of Hoaxes, I described how I came into possession of a miniature Cardiff Giant. I then decided to send it on an around-the-world tour. This involves sending it to volunteer hosts in various farflung regions who show it the sights in their neck of the woods, send me photos of its adventures, and then ship it on to the next volunteer.


The giant is currently in Perth, Austrialia, and I'm looking for people in that part of the world willing to temporarily adopt him. "That part of the world" is meant, in the broadest sense, to encompass all of Asia, Australasia, and India. Because while I've got a lot of volunteers from the U.S. and Europe, I haven't got any from anywhere else. And I'd like the giant to see as much of the world as possible.

So I'm posting here to see if there are any Weird Universe readers in exotic locales who'd like to play host to the giant. If you're interested, let me know.

Even if you live in boring-old Europe and the U.S. and you'd like to host the giant, let me know also. Because eventually the giant will be touring these regions. (possibly very soon if no one from Asia/Australia can be found.) I'll add you to the list.

Just one word of caution. If you agree to host the giant, you HAVE to send him to someone else after a few weeks. If you decide to keep him permanently, you'll incur the Curse of the Cardiff Giant, which is too awful to describe in words, though it's rumored to be similar to that melting flesh scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 06, 2012 - Comments (3)
Category: Travel, Sightseeing, Weird Universe

Rick Altergott News

What has the brilliant cartoonist Rick Altergott--who created our fabulous site banner--been up to lately?

He's started a new online strip about a young woman's romantic travails. And he's offering free sex advice!

Episode 1 here.

Episode 2 here.

Sex advice here.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 15, 2011 - Comments (2)
Category: Sexuality, Weird Universe, Comics

We had a little hiccup

Paul's post about the combo pocket-knife/revolver attracted the attention of boing boing and gizmodo, and the subsequent traffic spike promptly crashed our server, taking us offline since last night. Our apologies. I think I've got everything working again. Please return to the regular weirdness.

Update: I see Paul beat me to the explanation. But one other thing I should note. I temporarily disabled "member tracking" in order to alleviate the strain on the server. I'm honestly not quite sure what this tracks, exactly, or if we ever need to have it on at all. But the webhost told me it would help to turn it off. So I did.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Nov 16, 2011 - Comments (2)
Category: Weird Universe

Back Online!

Sorry for our downtime! When we got linked-to by BOING-BOING and GIZMODO yesterday, it swamped us!

But we're back, thanks to Tech Wizard Alex!

Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 16, 2011 - Comments (1)
Category: Technology, Weird Universe, Alex

Comments Decorum

Friends and Fellow WU-vies:

I note that some comments are trending into personal vituperation. May I ask that all offenders tone down their remarks and respect our forum....?

Otherwise, the Righteous Hammer of Wrath will have to be employed.

Thanks!

Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 16, 2011 - Comments (9)
Category: Weird Universe, Comments

Sucked into the Social Network

Weird Universe is officially twitterfied and facebooked. Links to our social network pages can be found in the "About Weird Universe" box in the right-hand column.

There's no reason to visit Weird Universe's facebook or twitter pages if you visit here, since WU posts (or, at least, the titles) will simply be reposted on those sites automatically — with a slight delay. However, if you feel a need to "like" us, or "follow" us, you now can.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 11, 2011 - Comments (10)
Category: Weird Universe