July 2013
July 27, 2013
Sending meteorites back home
Artist Katie Paterson is planning to send a meteorite back into space. I like this idea. The universe has been flinging rocks at the earth for billions of years, so it's high time we start flinging them back.Paterson writes that the meteorite has been "cast, melted, and then re-cast back into a new version of itself, retaining its original form." I'm not sure what the point of all that was, but it's art, so I'm not sure we're supposed to understand. I'm also not sure whether the meteorite will ever make it further than the International Space Station, or whether there are plans to fling it deeper into space. [wired.com]
Posted By: Alex - Sat Jul 27, 2013 -
Comments (0)
Category: Art, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy
Most Expensive Everything
We often feature luxury or dumb or crazy products that cost an unreasonable fortune. Well, here's a website that highlights nothing else.
Most Expensive website.
For instance, above is the Most Expensive Honey they could find, $83.00 per jar.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jul 27, 2013 -
Comments (1)
Category: Money, Outrageous Excess
July 26, 2013
NeverWet Demonstrations
This is not really a commercial for this new Rust-O-Leum product called "NeverWet", but a really cool demonstration of the many uses by some of the research scientists.My favorites are the cardboard box beer cooler and the chocolate and mustard sliding off the white shoes; although there are also demonstrations using cell phones and toilet brushes.
It makes me wonder if you could even wash a treated shirt -- or if it would need it. Could you get it dirty or smelly?
What would you make permanently waterproof?
Posted By: gdanea - Fri Jul 26, 2013 -
Comments (8)
Category: Science
Dieting advice from 1945
I wonder how the phrase 'fatty foolish' would go over in a weight watchers meeting nowadays.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jul 26, 2013 -
Comments (5)
Category: Food, 1940s
July 25, 2013
Bird Hat, part 2
Pictures recently taken at a Starbucks in Santa Monica showing a woman wearing a birdhouse hat have been circulating around the internet. As usual, WU is ahead of the curve on such things, since we've already posted about the 1968 predecessor of her hat. Though we'll need a few more sightings of birdhouse hats before we declare them officially "no longer weird."
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 25, 2013 -
Comments (10)
Category: Headgear
Blindfolded Boxing
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 25, 2013 -
Comments (7)
Category: Contests, Races and Other Competitions, Sports, Martial Arts, 1940s, Europe
July 24, 2013
Linguistic advice from 1945
(found on "The Boys and Girls Page" distributed by the NEA Service, 1945)
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jul 24, 2013 -
Comments (7)
Category: 1940s, Slang
July 23, 2013
Katachi
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jul 23, 2013 -
Comments (3)
Category: Music, Surrealism, Stop-motion Animation
New York bus driver’s “spring fling”
On Friday March 28, 1947, at 6:55 a.m., Bronx bus driver William Cimillo got into his bus to start his daily route. But then something happened. The open road called to him. He said later that he was overcome by "that old spring-time urge." He started driving, and he didn't stop until he reached Florida, where he was found four days later at a race track. During the entire trip, no one ever asked him why he was driving an empty New York bus down the highway.
"Baby, this is it... I just got the old springtime urge."
The bus company filed charges of grand larceny against him, but the public rallied in support of him, feeling that Cimillo simply gave in to that "yearning for escape" that everyone feels at one time or another. So eventually the company forgave him and put him back on the job, on the condition that he was on probation for one year.
Read more about Cimillo's adventure here and here.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jul 23, 2013 -
Comments (5)
Category: Mass Transit, 1940s
July 22, 2013
The Freedom Flask
I'm not sure if the point of this is to hide your booze, or to make your friends think you're drinking pee.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 22, 2013 -
Comments (2)
Category: Body Fluids
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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 |
