January 2025
January 26, 2025
Control your mobile phone with your feet
Researchers are developing a way to input commands on your phone as you walk by altering your stride, or moving your feet in various ways. They call these "gait gestures."So if you see someone walking funny, perhaps they're just sending a text.
More info: "Gait Gestures: Examining Stride and Foot Strike Variation as an Input Method While Walking"; Waterloo News
Posted By: Alex - Sun Jan 26, 2025 -
Comments (6)
Category: Technology, Telephones, Feet
Music From Mathematics
The first track is embedded here. The rest of the playlist is at the link.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 26, 2025 -
Comments (4)
Category: Music, Computers, 1960s
January 25, 2025
Pubic Display Type
The skincare company Kiehl's recently launched "a bold new campaign introducing Pubic Display Type. This first-of-its-kind font, crafted entirely from actual human pubic hair."They released three sample ads written in the new font. But they haven't released a full set of characters. So they can't really claim to have introduced a new font. Based on what I can see, they're missing: F J K Q X Y Z.
More info: prnewswire.com
Posted By: Alex - Sat Jan 25, 2025 -
Comments (2)
Category: Advertising, Hair and Hairstyling
Revolving Birth Table
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 25, 2025 -
Comments (2)
Category: Babies, Inventions, Stupid and/or Dangerous Products, Danger, Risk, and Peril, Pregnancy
January 24, 2025
Drop Kick Me Jesus
A 1976 Grammy nominee for best country song.Phil Dirxc, a columnist for The San Luis Obispo Tribune, argued that it would be more accurate if the song were titled "Place kick me Jesus" since drop kicks are rarely used in American football.
More info: Stereo Stories
Goleta Sun - Sep 9, 1976
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 24, 2025 -
Comments (2)
Category: Music, Religion, Sports, 1970s
Concealed Shoes
Hiding a shoe in a building brings mystical results? I think I'm going to try this!From the much more expansive Wikipedia entry on the subject.
Concealed shoes hidden in the fabric of a building have been discovered in many European countries, as well as in other parts of the world, since at least the early modern period. Independent researcher Brian Hoggard has observed that the locations in which these shoes are typically found – in chimneys, under floors, above ceilings, around doors and windows, in the roof – suggest that some may have been concealed as magical charms to protect the occupants of the building against evil influences such as demons, ghosts and witches. Others may have been intended to bestow fertility on a female member of the household, or been an offering to a household deity.
Full article for screenshot below found here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 24, 2025 -
Comments (0)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, Rituals and Superstitions, Shoes
January 23, 2025
Curtricia Miles, escape artist
Curtricia Miles was convicted of killing a massage parlor employee during a robbery in 1974. The next year she escaped from her jail cell by tunneling out using a knife, fork, and spoon. (I don't think she had to tunnel far. Sounds like the building was on a raised foundation, so she only had to get through the floor.)A month later she was arrested in Las Vegas on a marijuana charge, but she told the police her name was "Caroline Bendy" and they released her without bond.
She didn't stay free for long. The police found her a week later in a downtown casino. This final time she didn't manage to get away.
Toronto Star - July 16, 1975
Sacramento Bee - Aug 8, 1975
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jan 23, 2025 -
Comments (3)
Category: Crime, Prisons, 1970s
Railroad Worker Sign Language
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jan 23, 2025 -
Comments (1)
Category: Languages, Trains and Other Vehicles on Rails, 1930s
January 22, 2025
How to choose a pot
There's an ancient Hindu ceremony called Kumbh Vivah in which a woman will marry a pot. Details from vice.com:I'm pretty sure that Farberware didn't have this in mind when they made the ad below.
Boston Sunday Globe - Oct 31, 1971
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 22, 2025 -
Comments (2)
Category: Husbands, Marriage, 1970s
Nut Rocker
Wikipedia page of the artists.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Jan 22, 2025 -
Comments (2)
Category: Music, Homages, Pastiches, Tributes and Borrowings, 1960s
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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 |
