Weird Universe Blog — June 7, 2019

HumanCharger

From the Finnish company Valkee comes the HumanCharger, aka ear lights. Ear buds shine bright lights into your ears, and this is supposed to stimulate “light sensing proteins” in your brain and make you feell more energized. Specifically, the manufacturer offers the gadget as a cure for jet lag.

Many are skeptical. Back in 2015, a reviewer for the Guardian described them as “a very expensive flashlight.” (They retail for over $150). While the website earlightswindle.com has been trying to debunk them for years, noting:

The swindle was busted in 2012 in Finland, and Valkee was awarded the HuuHaa (flim-flam) prize for the earlight device. Having lost their home market, Valkee is trying elsewhere to trick people into buying this expensive toy

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jun 07, 2019 - Comments (3)
Category: Frauds, Cons and Scams | Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil

Mystery Illustration 82

Who, when, where, wha?

The answer is here. Or after the jump.

June 6, 2019

Raf Simons Grey Leather Tank Top

Usually it retails for $2850, but it's on sale now at ssense.com for only $1311. A bargain!

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jun 06, 2019 - Comments (6)
Category: Fashion | Overpriced Merchandise

Boil Tested Buttons

Are modern buttons boil tested in the year 2019? It seems overkill to me, even back then. If you had the plastics formulation down pat, and tested it once, would you have to boil every button that came off the "assembly" line?

Source.

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Jun 06, 2019 - Comments (3)
Category: Destruction | Domestic | Fashion | Advertising | Twentieth Century

June 5, 2019

Jaw Relation Simulator

“to help police investigations related to people who have been bitten by other people and who retain marks in their flesh from the experience.”

Chicago Tribune - Apr 1, 1990

Posted By: Alex - Wed Jun 05, 2019 - Comments (5)
Category: Police and Other Law Enforcement | Teeth

The First Buck Rogers Film

Explanation here.

June 4, 2019

Birch-Bark Suit

Created by Finnish artist Erkki Pekkarinen. There's not a lot of info to be found about him in English on the Internet. But Finland's Contemporary Folk Art Museum offers some:

Pekkarinen has bent bark to make both the largest birch bark shoes in the world (2.7 metres) and the smallest (3.8 millimetres). He is, however, best known for his all-bark ”forest-folk national costume”, which became the emblem of the 2001 ITE exhibition at Meilahti Art Museum in Helsinki. Pekkarinen has given his unfeigned performance in the same suit at many an ITE exhibition opening, wearing bark shoes, bark Stetson and carrying a bark briefcase. He always brings along a collection of smaller bark shoes in a tiny portable showcase.

His giant birch-bark shoes

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jun 04, 2019 - Comments (5)
Category: Art | Fashion

Follies of the Madmen #427

Source.

June 3, 2019

Name That List, #59

What is this a list of? The answer is below in extended.

Can-Cell
Thwip
Gorg
Haa
Frog-Dog
Pikobi
Laa
Kaadu
Pelikki
Peko-Peko
Fambaa
Odupiendo
Shaak
Aiwha
Acklay
Nexu
Orray
Dactillion
Ginntho
Gualaar
Kod’Yok
Runyip
Goaty-Chicken
Ronto
Jerba
Nudj
Sleen
Worrt
Verkle
Tip-Yip

I Was a Teenage Brain Surgeon

Page 3 of 19 pages < 1 2 3 4 5 > Last ›

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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. Our banner was drawn by the legendary underground cartoonist Rick Altergott. Contact Us

Who We Are

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.

Our banner was drawn by the legendary underground cartoonist Rick Altergott.

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