Weird Universe Blog — March 24, 2024

March 23, 2024

Python meat as the food of the future

Python meat is emerging as a new contender for the food of the future.

A report recently published in the journal Nature argues that python meat is potentially the most sustainable source of protein because "In terms of food and protein conversion ratios, pythons outperform all mainstream agricultural species studied to date." In other words, pythons convert most of what they eat directly into meat on their body.

The authors also make the case that farming pythons is more ethical than farming chickens or cows because "Pythons don’t have the same cognitive capacity and choose to remain inactive in small confined spaces when they don’t need to find food."

More info: Nature, New Scientist

People on YouTube who have tried python uniformly report that it's chewy. So grinding it up into a burger might be the way to go.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 23, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Food | Farming

You’re the Judge

Posted By: Paul - Sat Mar 23, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests | Domestic | Food | Advertising | Teenagers | 1960s

March 22, 2024

Working on Sunday

The UK's Shops Act made it illegal to operate a shop on Sunday... unless one was Jewish (since the Jewish observed the sabbath on Saturday). So business owner Mike Robertson figured that to open his stores on Sunday he simply had to make his staff convert to Judaism.

The Shops Act had other oddities. According to the London Telegraph, a shop could stay open if it was "in an officially designated 'holiday resort area'" or if it restricted sales to "certain kinds of perishable goods, like fruit, flowers and vegetables; medical and surgical appliances, newspapers, cigarettes and refreshments."

Bristol Western Daily Press - Mar 8, 1977

Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 22, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Business | Law | Religion | 1970s

The Venice Surfestival

This celebration ran for a number of years. And of course, there had to be a queen each year.











Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 22, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues | Oceans and Maritime Pursuits | Parades and Festivals | Regionalism | Twentieth Century

March 21, 2024

Gestalt Shift Bird Image

The image below is a single-exposure photo. It wasn't created by Photoshop. Knowing that, it took me a long time to make sense of the image (because my brain refused to see how it could be a scene from real life). My wife, on the other hand, figured it out right away.

Some info about it from PetaPixel:

The photograph, titled “Gap,” was captured by a Japanese photographer named Kenichi Ohno from the Saitama Prefecture in the Kantō region of Honshu, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. Kenichi entered the photo in the 39th “Japanese Nature” photo contest put on by the The All-Japan Association of Photographic Societies (AJAPS), which boasts 10,000 members across Japan, and the photo was honored as a “Special Selection” winner.

PetaPixel also explains how to make sense of it, if you're stuck.



via TYWKIWDBI

Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 21, 2024 - Comments (6)
Category: Photography and Photographers

The Poetry of Hy Sobiloff

Something tells me Sobiloff should have stuck to his other careers.

From his encyclopedia entry:

Sobiloff, whose poetry was respected by many of his better-known contemporaries for its fresh, honest, unpretentious qualities, was also widely known as a filmmaker, industrialist, and philanthropist... While praising his work, both Aiken and Tate come close to representing the poet as a primitive, particularly by their use of words such as "folk" or "unaware..." Less positive were Kimon Friar's judgments of the collection, as presented in Saturday Review: "Sobiloff's poems are monolithic, his lines lack cadence, there is no melodic progression within a single stanza or between stanzas. Instead, we have staccato and precise descriptions of objects, but with little of the poetic realism of a William Carlos Williams or of the subtlety of Wallace Stevens."




Posted By: Paul - Thu Mar 21, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Amateurs and Fans | Vinyl Albums and Other Media Recordings | Poetry | 1960s

March 20, 2024

For relief of emotional stress

For housewives on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Medical Economics - Mar 2, 1959

Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 20, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Medicine | Psychology | 1950s

The Spectrum of Intemperance

Where do you fall on the boozy scale?

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Mar 20, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Eighteenth Century

March 19, 2024

Dr. Dante’s Figure Control Record

Just listen to Dr. Dante's exciting voice and lose weight permanently. No exercise! "For Women Only"

The album was released in 1972.

Some trivia about it from discogs.org: "this album is clearly visible in the movie Gremlins which came out in 1984. Towards the end of the movie, after they blow up the movie theater, when they’re chasing Stripe through the department store Billy is walking through the electronics department with a bat and this album is highlighted in that scene."

audio via: thecrosspollinator





Posted By: Alex - Tue Mar 19, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Vinyl Albums and Other Media Recordings | 1970s | Dieting and Weight Loss

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All original content in posts is Copyright © 2016 by the author of the post, which is usually either Alex Boese ("Alex"), Paul Di Filippo ("Paul"), or Chuck Shepherd ("Chuck"). All rights reserved. The banner illustration at the top of this page is Copyright © 2008 by Rick Altergott.

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