Weird Universe Archive
September 2012
September 8, 2012
Jack’s Dream
Until recently, I was not aware that the famous surrealist collage artist Joseph Cornell also made films. Here's one delightfully weird sample. Many more on YouTube.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 08, 2012 -
Comments (2)
Category: Dreams and Nightmares, Movies, Avant Garde, Surrealism, Myths and Fairytales, Fictional Monsters
No Sense Of Humor
Ben & Jerry are suing the makers of the Ben & Cherry's porn movies for trademark infringement. Gee, gotta have a sense of Good Humor guys!
Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 08, 2012 -
Comments (3)
Category:
The Method of the Nail
I came across an unusual article titled "The Good Old Method of the Nail" in an old medical journal. (Unfortunately I can't find an online version of it.) The article details the history of killing people by driving nails into their brain.
Apparently the 'method of the nail' used to be quite a popular homicide technique, because in the days before x-rays it was hard to tell that someone had a nail in their head. The victim's hair might hide the wound, so people, not seeing any obvious sign of injury or foul play, would often assume death occurred from natural causes.
The method of the nail is such an ancient technique that it's mentioned in the Bible, Book of Judges 4:21:
Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a nail of the tent, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.
It also pops up in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, in "The Wife of Bath's Prologue," which includes a list of various ways wives kill their husbands:
And somme han drive nayles in hir brayn
Whyl that they slepte, and thus they han
hem slayn.
Whyl that they slepte, and thus they han
hem slayn.
Nor is the nail-in-the-head just a western phenomenon. It also has deep roots in Chinese culture. From the article:
The nail murder is one of the most famous motifs in Chinese crime literature. The oldest source is quoted in the casebook T'ang-yin pi-shih, where the solution is ascribed to Yen Tsun, a clever judge.
The point of these stories is always the same: the judge is baffled by the fact that although there are strong reasons for suspecting the wife, the body of the husband shows no signs of violence. The final discovery of the nail is elaborated in various ways.
The oldest version said that Yen Tsun found it because he noted that a swarm of flies congregated on one place on top of the dead man's skull...
In 1881, Stent recorded another version under the title 'The Double Nail Murders' in volume 10 of the China Review: When the coroner fails to discover any trace of violence on the victim's corpse, his own wife suggests to him that he look for a nail. When the judge has convicted the murdered man's widow on this evidence, he also has the coroner's wife brought to him, since her knowledge of such a subtle way of committing a murder seems suspicious to him. It transpires that the coroner is her second husband. The corpse of her first husband is exhumed, and a nail discovered inside the skull. Both women are executed.
The point of these stories is always the same: the judge is baffled by the fact that although there are strong reasons for suspecting the wife, the body of the husband shows no signs of violence. The final discovery of the nail is elaborated in various ways.
The oldest version said that Yen Tsun found it because he noted that a swarm of flies congregated on one place on top of the dead man's skull...
In 1881, Stent recorded another version under the title 'The Double Nail Murders' in volume 10 of the China Review: When the coroner fails to discover any trace of violence on the victim's corpse, his own wife suggests to him that he look for a nail. When the judge has convicted the murdered man's widow on this evidence, he also has the coroner's wife brought to him, since her knowledge of such a subtle way of committing a murder seems suspicious to him. It transpires that the coroner is her second husband. The corpse of her first husband is exhumed, and a nail discovered inside the skull. Both women are executed.
The image at the top is an x-ray from a 1973 case, in which a man used a hammer to drive an awl into his wife's head, explaining that he did it to "exorcise the evil soul that had taken its place in her head."
Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 08, 2012 -
Comments (6)
Category: Crime, Brain, Brain Damage
September 7, 2012
Suicide by Crocodile
1990: A woman climbed the fence at the same crocodile farm, Samut Prakarn, and was swarmed by crocs as hundreds of tourists watched in horror. [LA Times]
1994: Following the death of President Felix Houphouet-Boigny of the Ivory Coast, a man declared that without the president life wasn't worth living and jumped into the crocodile-infested moat outside the presidential palace in Yamoussoukro. Crowds watched for two days as the crocs chewed on his body. [Glasgow Herald]
2002: Again at Thailand's Samut Prakarn croc farm, a depressed woman waded into the crocodile pit. A spectator later said, "The moment the crocodile grabbed her body, she even hugged onto him. It was horrifying." [The Nation]
2011: A South-African farm worker, depressed after a fight with his lover, waded into the crocodile-infested Lepelle river. No one saw him actually being eaten, but someone later reported seeing a human leg dangling out of a crocodile's mouth. [Daily Mail]
Based on these reports, it sounds like it can take up to 20 or 30 minutes before the crocodiles actually kill you. So it's not a particularly quick form of suicide. Also, I'm not sure if it would be blood loss or drowning that would finally kill you -- or perhaps a combination of both!
Posted By: Alex - Fri Sep 07, 2012 -
Comments (12)
Category: Animals, Death, Suicide
Cabriole
Cabriole from Leosipe on Vimeo.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 07, 2012 -
Comments (2)
Category: Stupid Criminals, Cartoons
September 6, 2012
Four Weird Vintage Postcards
Click on any image to enlarge.
Be sure to use Number Four in all anti-Romney campaigning.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 06, 2012 -
Comments (7)
Category: Art, Religion, Stereotypes and Cliches, Postal Services
$290.67 Paper Bag
It's made from coated brown paper. It has stitched seams at each side with two gold-colored metal eyelets at the bottom. But, most importantly, it has the name "Jill Sander" printed at the bottom. This bag could have been yours for only $290.67 -- but you're too late. It's already sold out! [via hypebeast]
Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 06, 2012 -
Comments (10)
Category: Fashion, Overpriced Merchandise
September 5, 2012
Record People Per Gallon
I know some places really stack them deep on buses and trains, but a scooter? I think there are nine people on this one, unless there's another bucket on the other side.
Please don't try this at home.
Posted By: gdanea - Wed Sep 05, 2012 -
Comments (14)
Category: Motorcycles
Autobiography of Jesus
Wouldn't so many, many contemporary controversies be definitively settled if only we had Jesus's own writings about his life? Doesn't the sorry world of the 21st century need his inspired insights, straight from the Savior's lips? Of course! And yet, this Spiritualist-dictated "autobiography" languishes unread!
Check it out here.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 05, 2012 -
Comments (9)
Category: Disguises, Impersonations, Mimics and Forgeries, Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Religion, Books, Nineteenth Century
September 3, 2012
Johnson Smith Catalog Item #25
[Click to enlarge]
See, young'uns, before this here newfangled internet, you interacted face-to-face with folks, and when you wanted to call them out on a fib, you couldn't just tweet about it, you had to demonstrate your disbelief in some tangible, analog fashion.
But "chestnut bells"?!? In your hat!?! What the--?
Posted By: Paul - Mon Sep 03, 2012 -
Comments (10)
Category: Humor, Headgear, 1930s, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults
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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 |
