Weird Universe Archive
December 2008
December 5, 2008
Testing Bullet-Proof Glass
Footage from the early 30s. A man tests bullet-proof glass by having his wife hold the glass in front of her face, because nothing says "I love you, honey" like shooting at your wife. via
Posted By: Alex - Fri Dec 05, 2008 -
Comments (8)
Category: Guns
December 4, 2008
She Doesn’t Have to Shave
Following up on Alex's "Couvade" post: here's a musical exegesis of the eternal tradeoff between daily facial shaving for men, and monthly menstruation for women.God, I miss Squeeze!
Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 04, 2008 -
Comments (6)
Category: Music, Video, Gender, Men, Women, Body Fluids, 1990s, Facial Hair
Persian Lion Business Trip
The more I watch this, the more I believe the lions are really saying what's in the subtitles.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 04, 2008 -
Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Business, Advertising, Foreign Customs
Yet Another Apology from Chuck
Various projects are coming due for me this week. I had good intentions, but I can't make my afternoon post today, either.
Posted By: Chuck - Thu Dec 04, 2008 -
Comments (2)
Category:
Underwater
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SILVER SPRINGS. Fla. -- More than 150 members of the press from New York and Hollywood, Calif., gathered in this village for the premiere of a motion picture -- "Underwater" -- underwater.
The contingent was led by the star of the picture, Jane Russell. She and about forty others, wearing oxygen masks, sat on four long benches, placed twenty feet down in the clear water of the springs.
A large plastic screen, sprinkled with reflecting aluminum dust, was suspended fifty-two feet from the projection machine, housed in a glass-wall boat. Loudspeakers were scattered about the sand.
The contingent was led by the star of the picture, Jane Russell. She and about forty others, wearing oxygen masks, sat on four long benches, placed twenty feet down in the clear water of the springs.
A large plastic screen, sprinkled with reflecting aluminum dust, was suspended fifty-two feet from the projection machine, housed in a glass-wall boat. Loudspeakers were scattered about the sand.
Apparently the screening didn't turn out very well. According to an RKO publicist, "Several journalists kept bobbing to the surface."
Some more trivia about the movie. That's not Jane Russell's body in the poster. The artists swiped the body from the August '54 issue of Collier's magazine.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 04, 2008 -
Comments (5)
Category: Movies
Gun-Shy Mumbai, “Lewinskian Nature,” Chestapalooza
and the Morning Edition of Chuck's News of the Weird Daily for Thursday, December 4, 2008Mumbai perhaps wasn't randomly chosen as a terror target among Westernized cities
The Times of India reported that in Mumbai (population 50 percent greater than New York City's), law enforcement owns a total of 577 guns and that many cops authorized to carry them have never fired once, even in practice. (Target-shooting is hard because there are no police firing ranges; if a cop wants to shoot, he has to book time at a private range. And besides, ammunition is scarce, so it kinda defeats the purpose to target-shoot it all away.) The Times of India
Comments 'gunshy_mumbai'
Fine points of the law (foreign edition)
(1) Sweden's Social Insurance Agency halted disability payments to a car-accident woman, pointing to a doctor's conclusion that her continued pain was actually from too-large gazongas and that if she had reduction surgery, she'd be pain-free. (2) Germany's Federal Constitutional Court tossed out the ladies-only rule for inmates' right to buy skin moisturizers. (3) Italy's Court of Cassation sent a dismissed libel case back to the lower court for trial, ruling that accusing a woman of having a "Lewinskian nature" was insulting enough. The Local (Stockholm) /// Agence France-Presse via Yahoo /// ANSA [Italy's leading news agency]
Comments 'swedgermital_law'
Your Daily Loser
William Santiago was caught improperly in a handicapped parking space, and then got attitude about it when gently confronted by the father of two muscular-dystrophy sons. Santiago works for the Mesa (Ariz.) Public School system, where he is director of special education programs. The Arizona Republic
Comments 'william_santiago'
People Whose Sex Lives Are Worse Than Yours
Cabdriver Ted Smith, 57, charged with sexual assault of a Down syndrome passenger, 34 (mental age: 4) (Even worse: He said she consented to the relationship.) Daily-News Record (Harrisonburg, Va.) [with mug shot]
Comments 'ted_smith'
Your Daily Jury Duty
[no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
This case is all over the news now: emaciated 17-yr-old, looks 10, shackled and wearing only underwear, says he escaped from a year's custody. The three suspects don't quite fit the profiles suggested by the charges, but the charges are still serious, so justice requires that you look very, very carefully at the photos [scroll down to all three]. Very carefully. OK, once more. Have you reached a verdict? Associated Press via MSNBC
Comments 'emaciated_shackled'
More Things to Worry About on Thursday
Another fine piece of detective work (and by an ambulance crew!): They spotted the DUI driver based merely on . . the broken-off gasoline hose still hanging out of her tank. Reno Gazette-Journal
Just can't control herself: Jessica Cohen, 20, went to the Public Defender's Office in Cincinnati to get help on a shoplifting charge, and a lady took down her information and said they'd get back to her, and so on the way out, Jessica stole the lady's cell phone. Cincinnati Enquirer
Comments on More Things to Worry About on Thursday?
Comments 'emaciated_shackled'
Posted By: Chuck - Thu Dec 04, 2008 -
Comments (0)
Category:
The Overview Effect
According to The Overview Institute, the Overview Effect "refers to the experience of seeing firsthand the reality of the Earth in space, which is immediately understood to be a tiny, fragile ball of life, hanging in the void, shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere. From space, the astronauts tell us, national boundaries vanish, the conflicts that divide us become less important and the need to create a planetary society with the united will to protect this 'pale blue dot' becomes both obvious and imperative."The purpose of the Overview Institute is to "promote and support widespread experience of [the Overview Effect], through direct space travel, and newer, more powerful and more publicly available space art, multi-media and education."
Nice idea, but being the cynic that I am, I'm pretty sure it's going to take more than being blasted into space to cure people of their prejudices and tribal loyalties.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 04, 2008 -
Comments (2)
Category: Travel, Space Travel
December 3, 2008
Editor’s Note on Yesterday’s Brianna Broitzman Link
Apparently, the Albert Lea (Minn.) Tribune does things differently, and its links to stories expire whenever something changes in the story. If you tried to link to the story from Monday's or Tuesday's News of the Weird Daily feed, but were unsuccessful and gave up, you can try again here. If you don't know what I'm talking about but want to find out, go to Tuesday's post here [first story]. Other websites have solved the problem by screen-capturing, and then posting, the story, which is a copyright no-no for a news-aggregater site like ours even though newspapers have not yet been active in chasing violators (and we'll leave it to others to be the ones caught on the end of a roll of the dice if that time comes).
Posted By: Chuck - Wed Dec 03, 2008 -
Comments (1)
Category:
Father Abraham and the Smurfs
If you had to be locked in a small room for twenty-four hours with a musical novelty act, which would you prefer?1) Alvin and the Chipmunks
2) Barney the Purple Dinosaur
3) The Danish dogs who originally barked out "Jingle Bells" in 1955
4) Father Abraham and the Smurfs
Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 03, 2008 -
Comments (6)
Category: Music, 1970s, Fictional Monsters
High Weirdness by Mail
In those antique pre-internet days of the book's debut, your only resources for contacting and receiving strange information was the USPS. There are plenty of cheap copies of HWBM available online, if you want to get a nostalgic snapshot of that era.
But the SubGeniuses behind the book have also launched THE HIGH WEIRDNESS PROJECT, which strives to replicate the book as a web-based experience.
Pay them a visit, and get your slack on.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 03, 2008 -
Comments (7)
Category: Eccentrics, Religion, Weird Studies and Guides, Books, 1980s
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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 |
