Weird Universe Archive

February 2013

February 24, 2013

Eurovision Winner:  1967

The annual Eurovision contest is chugging along, and we haven't made fun of a past winner in a while.

Here's the best Europe could offer in 1967, a year when everyone else was listening to revolutionary work by the Doors, the Stones, the Beatles, et al.

Sandie Shaw on Wikipedia.



Posted By: Paul - Sun Feb 24, 2013 - Comments (9)
Category: Contests, Races and Other Competitions, Music, 1960s, Europe

Absolutely Lewis!

Pioneers of style!

Posted By: Alex - Sun Feb 24, 2013 - Comments (8)
Category: Fashion, 1970s

February 23, 2013

Pulled Video

Mashable.com is hosting a video that Nascar and Youtube chose to censor. A fan in the stands got some pretty intense video of a very serious wreck from todays race. Part of a car flew into the stands causing injuries to spectators including the person in the video who was apparently hit by a tire. Details of the huge wreck are also available at the link.

UPDATE: Youtube has reinstated the previously pulled video.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 23, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Sports

Octopus Wrestling

According to wikipedia, octopus wrestling "involves a diver grappling with a large octopus in shallow water and dragging it to the surface."

Popular Mechanics (May 1966) provides some more details:

Two things work for the hunters. The octopus is basically timid, and divers work in teams. One man goes down (about 50 feet) and tries to force an octopus from his cave. When he comes up for air, the second man goes down and tries to pry the octopus loose from the rocks. If he's not up in 30 seconds, the third man goes down. They don't harm the animals. They just weigh them and throw them back in. Why do they do it? Well, why not?




Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 23, 2013 - Comments (7)
Category: Sports, Wrestling, 1960s

Young Man’s Fancy



Electricity: too cheap to meter!

Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 23, 2013 - Comments (2)
Category: Domestic, Appliances, Propaganda, Thought Control and Brainwashing, PSA’s, Utilities and Power Generation, 1950s

February 22, 2013

Herpits

image

Make your visit now!

Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 22, 2013 - Comments (5)
Category: Body, Skin and Skin Conditions, Hygiene, Asia

The Philadelphia Phonograph School of Languages for Parrots


It came into existence circa 1903. Details from The Strand Magazine:

Philadelphia can boast of a phonograph school for parrots. It is said to be the only institution of its kind in the world. Here parrots are taught to speak by means of the phonograph, and during the brief time that the school has been in existence over one hundred birds have been taught to pronounce all kinds of sentences and phrases for the edification of themselves and the amusement of their owners.

This is the twentieth-century method of teaching a parrot. Hitherto he has been taught by tutors, generally women, and, if the truth must be told, he has not been altogether a satisfactory or exemplary pupil. First of all his teacher has to repeat the phrase or sentence over and over again, hundreds and thousands of times, before "Pretty Polly" is able to pronounce it. This in itself is a tiresome procedure, but it is rendered more fatiguing on account of the fact that the speaker must be hidden from the parrot. She has, therefore, to crouch behind a screen or to cover the cage of the bird with a large hood. The former is regarded as the best method, as no self-respecting parrot likes to be left alone in the dark, but to hide oneself secretly behind a screen and then repeat the words, "Pretty Polly," "Pretty Polly," a thousand times is surely not an enviable task.

By the new mode of teaching, however, no personal inconvenience of this nature is felt, for all the tutor has to do is to obtain a phonograph, secure a few records suitable for birds, and set the phonograph going in the parrot's ear. The bird, too, learns more quickly by this method than in the old way...

The fee for a full term of six months is eight pounds. Parrots are often sent, however, for a briefer period, when the rate charge is ten shillings per week, including, of course, board and lodging. Sometimes, when a pupil has to be taught unusual phrases—French or German sentences, for instance—the tuition rate is a little higher.

Posted By: Alex - Fri Feb 22, 2013 - Comments (5)
Category: Animals, School, 1900s

February 21, 2013

Hadaka Matsuri:  Annual Japanese “Naked Festival”




Read the full story here.

No full monty, just semi-bare male butts.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Feb 21, 2013 - Comments (5)
Category:

The art of the painting fool

Below are some paintings by "the painting fool." What makes the painting fool an unusual artist is that it's not human. It's a computer program, though he/she/it talks in the first person:
I'm The Painting Fool: a computer program, and an aspiring painter. The aim of this project is for me to be taken seriously - one day - as a creative artist in my own right. I have been built to exhibit behaviours that might be deemed as skilful, appreciative and imaginative. My work has been exhibited in real and online galleries; the ideas behind my conception have been used to address philosophical notions such as emotion and intentionality in non-human intelligences.

If the painting fool suddenly becomes obsessed with drawing clowns and disney characters, then we're in trouble.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Feb 21, 2013 - Comments (1)
Category: Art

February 20, 2013

Carnival



How our ancestors amused themselves before digital technology, at "this noisy carefree island of helter-skelter joy."

Be sure to marvel at the fortune-telling bird.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Feb 20, 2013 - Comments (3)
Category: Fairs, Amusement Parks, and Resorts

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