Weird Universe Archive
June 2013
June 10, 2013
The iTray
Waitering goes high-tech. Somehow I don't think this will be widely adopted.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jun 10, 2013 -
Comments (6)
Category: Restaurants, Technology
Stratos Fear
A cartoon that surely must have produced many nightmares in its day. I'm certain there was much psychosexual damage done when the sexy woman revealed her true identity.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jun 10, 2013 -
Comments (3)
Category: Dreams and Nightmares, Surrealism, Science Fiction, Cartoons, 1930s
News of the Weird 2.0 (June 10, 2013)
News of the Weird 2.0Angst, Confusion, Cynicism, Ridicule
Prime Cuts of Underreported News from Last Week, Hand-Picked and Lightly Seasoned by Chuck Shepherd
June 10, 2013
(datelines June 1-June 8) (links correct as of June 9)
© 2013 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
★ ★ ★ ★!
Another Breatharian Sees the Light: Seattle’s Navenna Shine says the only reason there aren’t more “breatharians” (no food intake, just air and sun) is that everybody assumes it doesn’t work--that practitioners always sneak Doritos from time to time. She says she has she set up a full video-surveillance household to prove that, when she beats it, it’ll be legitimate. She’s 30 days into it, she said, and she’s still among the living. The leading theoretician, a woman named Ellen Greve, is mysteriously still alive so she must’ve gone off the wagon at some point, but little is known. (Bonus musing: Why would anyone dependent on sunlight choose to live in Seattle?) Gawker /// Wikipedia
It’s the law in Texas that you’re allowed to fire at will at anyone trespassing in your home at night--or are trying to recover property in your home, even when it’s a hooker who took your money, then declined to put out. Hence, a jury found Ezekiel Gilbert not guilty of murder. San Antonio Express-News
Unclear on the Concept: Prominent poet-artist Kenneth Goldsmith is apparently going ahead with his July 26-August 30 project to, um, print out the Internet. His intention is to honor the late information-freeing god Aaron Swartz, but still . . .. PSFK.com
The gourmet lollipop company Lollyphile of Austin, Tex., has introduced breast-milk-flavored suckers. Said the owner, “We’d like to think that we’re tapping into a flavor our customers loved before they even knew how to think.” Huffington Post
More Things to Worry About
Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Nikolas Chugay introduced a torturous weight-loss treatment (good for 30 lbs. in one month, but no renewals) consisting to sewing a piece of plastic gauze onto the tongue that makes eating so painful that you can only drink Ensures. There are no renewals because anything longer than a month risks the tongue’s growing over the gauze. World’s Greatest Newspaper
As if IRS didn’t have enough to worry about, its Inspector General for Tax Administration admitted to Congress that people filing for low-income tax credits are free to cheat. Even though IRS disburses about $13.6bn to them, which is just about its annual administration budget, it’s not cost-effective to chase such low-level cheats. CNS News
Robert Dugan, 47, became one of those rare police officers who managed to get himself arrested for impersonating a police officer. (Oh, and as long as we’re on ironies, ummm, last week’s Earth Wind & Fire concert in Virginia was postponed because of “rain,” and a couple who had been hosting “In Pursuit of Happiness” on WBAI Radio in New York City committed suicide.) Delaware County Daily Times /// Pavilion Concerts /// New York Daily News
The Aristocrats!
Cynthis Siau, 60, stabbed the hell out of her new husband (while arguing over the TV remote) and was also charged with
The delightful Moore family of Mason, Ohio, showed a lady friend of Shena Moore just what they do to women who send texts to Shena’s boyfriend. They try to cut off his texting fingers with pruning shears. Among the perps: Shena’s dad, the full-appetited Gerald Moore Jr., 49, who used his cane. (Bonus: mugshots!) Mason Buzz via World’s Greatest Newspaper
Here’s the normal-looking Gerardo Perez, charged with having sex with a pit bull. (Bonus: “He was allegedly on his hands and knees on the side of the dog, appearing to have just had sex with the animal, prosecutors said.) (“Appearing”? Like smoking a cigarette?) WMAQ-TV (Chicago)
Weekly Cite-Seeing
Far-Right Extremists Chased Through London by Women Dressed as Badgers --- International Business Times (London)
Man, 66, Goes to Doctor and Finds He’s a Woman --- South China Morning Post
Secret Man Caves Found in EPA Warehouse --- Government Executive LINK CORRECTED
Homeless Man Claimed “Adverse Possession” of Home, Along with Beer and Kid Inside --- South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Strange Old World
First prize last week in the Swedish pizza championships, which drew some of the top chefs in the country, was “Karlsson” of the restaurant Speceriet, with a pie topped with pickled cabbage, sour cream, and smoked beef bone marrow. The Local (Stockholm)
How Veddy British! Carole Longhorn found a WWII bomb in her godden, and eventually the bomb squad came to take care of it, but first, Carole felt she had to wash it off in the sink. (Said hubby Clive, to reporters: “You can imagine what I said to her.”) BBC News
The Brazilian health ministry, apparently as concerned as Americans and British are about how to cure low self-esteem, now say they might have gone too far. They’re dropping their anti-STD campaign that featured “I’m happy being a prostitute.” BBC News
The local council in Brunete, Spain, 20 miles from Madrid, has now seen a radical drop in unscooped dog poop after 147 parcels went out recently. Volunteers who spotted derelict owners innocently engaged them in conversation (“what’s your doggy’s name?”), then matched the dog with town registrations, then mailed the poop to the owner (as “lost property”). Genius! Daily Telegraph (London)
Newsrangers: Hal Dunham and Bruce Leiserowitz, and the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors
Posted By: Chuck - Mon Jun 10, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category:
June 9, 2013
Behind the Scenes—Great Movies
I've included two of my favorite pictures from this website which shows some great behind the scene photos from movies including "Alien", "Blade Runner", "Metropolis", "Superman", "Star Wars", "Godzilla" and many others.
You can't call a guy enjoying toast and tea a monster.
You can even see R2-D2 in an altered state!!
Here's the link:
http://io9.com/stunning-behind-the-scenes-photos-show-iconic-movies-in-512190237
Enjoy!!
Posted By: gdanea - Sun Jun 09, 2013 -
Comments (2)
Category: Movies
Makeup By Hanna Majava
Many more images at the links.
Her blog.
Her Facebook page.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jun 09, 2013 -
Comments (3)
Category: Art, Europe, Body Painting
News of the Weird (June 9, 2013)
News of the WeirdWeirdnuz.M322, June 9, 2013
Copyright 2013 by Chuck Shepherd
Editor's Note: As a service to WU'vies who keep up with their daily reading, I've marked the stories that I've previously mentioned on News of the Weird 2.0, even though I often do a better job explaining a story the second time around and even though many of us WU'vies, almost by definition, are here because we have delicate attention spans.
Lead Story
PREVIOUSLY ON WEIRD UNIVERSE: The Food and Drug Administration proposed recently to limit the quantity of tiny “mites” that could occupy imported cheese, even though living, crawling mites are a feature desired by aficionados. (“Cheese is absolutely alive!” proclaimed microbiologist Rachel Dutton, who runs the “cheese laboratory” at Harvard University.) In fact, cheese is home to various molds, bacteria, and yeasts, which give it flavor, and sellers routinely use blowers to expel excessive critters, but the FDA now wants to limit them to 6 bugs per square inch. However, according to a May report on NPR, lovers of some cheeses, especially the French Mimolette, object, asserting both an indifference to the sight of mites creeping around--and a fear of taste-loss (since the mites burrow into the hunk, aerating it and extending the flavor). [NPR, 5-11-2013]
Ironies
PREVIOUSLY: Energy West, the natural gas supplier in Great Falls, Mont., had tried recently to raise awareness of leaks by distributing scratch-and-sniff cards to residents exposing gas’s distinctive, rotten-egg smell. In May, workers cast aside several cartons of leftover cards, which were hauled off and disposed of by crushing--which released the scent and produced a massive blanket of odor over downtown Great Falls, resulting in a flurry of panicked calls to firefighters about gas leaks. [Great Falls Tribune, 5-8-2013]
PREVIOUSLY (1), NOT (2): Well, Of Course! (1) The Ypsalanti, Mich., City Council voted in May on a resolution that would have required the members always to vote either “yes” or “no” (to thus reduce the recent, annoying number of “abstain” votes). The resolution to ban abstaining failed because three of the six members abstained. (2) Doctors told a newspaper in Stockholm in April that at least one of Sweden’s premier modeling agencies, looking for recruits, had been caught passing out business cards adjacent to the country’s largest eating-disorder clinic, forcing the clinic to change its rules on patients taking outside walks. [Associated Press via WHTM-TV (Harrisburg, Pa.), 5-23-2013] [The Local (Stockholm), 4-18-2013]
PREVIOUSLY: The United Nations-funded multilateral forum on arms control agreements (its Conference on Disarmament) was chaired beginning May 27th (until June 23rd) by Iran, which, for that time, at least, had the awkward job of overseeing resolutions on nuclear non-proliferation, which the country is widely thought to be ignoring. [Fox News, 5-13-2013]
Compelling Explanations
Unclear on the Concept: (1) Ruben Pavon was identified by surveillance video in Derry, N.H., in April snatching a grill from the front porch of a thrift store. Pavon explained to police that the store’s name, “Finders Keepers,” indicated to him that the objects were free for the taking and admitted that he had previously taken items from the porch. (2) In May, Los Angeles police bought back 1,200 guns in one of the periodic U.S. buy-back programs, but they declined to accept the pipe bomb a man said he wanted to sell. “This is not a pipe-bomb buyback,” said Chief Charlie Beck. “Pipe bombs are illegal . . ..” [WMUR-TV (Manchester, N.H.), 5-1-2013] [KCBS-TV (Los Angeles, 5-6-2013]
More in extended >>
Posted By: Chuck - Sun Jun 09, 2013 -
Comments (2)
Category:
June 8, 2013
Budgie in a Hat
British actress Jane Bough appeared in TV series such as Upstairs, Downstairs (1972) and Anne of Green Gables (1952), but she may be best remembered as the pioneer of the "budgie in a hat," variations of which she to various horse races during the summer of 1968.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Jun 08, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category: Fashion, Headgear, 1960s
Instant Car Crash Guaranteed!
Original ad here. (Scroll down.)
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jun 08, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category: Death, Chindogu, 1950s, Cars
June 7, 2013
Power Mowing
A riding mower that does 130MPH and still actually mows. Just don't roll it or you will get chopped to pieces!
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jun 07, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category: Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough
Vintage Chauvanist Ads
Check out these old ads. I especially like the one that asks "Is it always illegal to kill a woman?' Times have sure changed, thank goodness!
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jun 07, 2013 -
Comments (7)
Category: Feminism
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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 |
