Weird Universe Weblog

Robots designed after nature

2010-02-09T02:04:00Z

Using insects, salamanders, geckos, water striders and cockroaches, scientists are designing robots for various purposes. At the end, the self-rearranging robot climbs up a suitcase and does the limbo.

I'm officially requesting the beta for the foot massaging robot who also trims toenails -- maybe designed after a caterpillar? Maybe not.

Robonaut

2010-02-09T01:34:00Z

One small step for robots one giant step for robot-kind. Brought to you by NASA and GM, R2, the next generation in robots with space travel applications. Oh, and GM also hopes to use them to replace humans in car plants as well. Public funds involved in screwing the working man, where have I heard of that before?
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2010/02/gm-and-nasa-build-new-robot-astronaut-a-robonaut/1

More Miniatures

2010-02-08T19:40:00Z

Mui-Ling Teh has been doing miniature origami since the age of 9. As a child she used candy wrappers now she uses paper and scissors and tweezers. Her creations are about 3mm tall. Teh says the hobby calm her and helps focus her mind.
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/812140-artist-wows-with-miniature-origami

Door-to-Door Maniac

2010-02-08T14:41:00Z

News of the Weird / Pro Edition (February 8)

2010-02-08T11:17:00Z

News of the Weird/Pro Edition
February 8, 2010
Exceptionally Inexplicable Dispatches from Last Week
(datelines January 30-February 6) (links correct as of February 8)

Indiscriminate Anti-Discrimination, Plus Runaway Mojo, Neil Armstrong's Poop, and the Horror of Upside-Down Faxes

A Cavalcade of Anti-Discrimination
(1) Near-Perfect Storm: Benjamin Grundy is challenging Garfield-Palouse High School in eastern Washington for illegal discrimination. He's gay, plus biracial, plus mentally challenged. Plus, he'd like to be on the cheerleading team. (2) The U.S. Dept. of Justice is trying to get in front of any discrimination complaints in its Civil Rights Division, with a job announcement for "experienced attorneys," in which the Department "encourages qualified applicants with targeted disabilities to apply." "Targeted disabilities" include the traditional (deafness, blindness) as well as "mental retardation." (3) Similarly, England's Portsmouth City Council tells aspirants for taxicab licenses that they can get applications in "another language [besides English]," in "large print," in "audio," and in "Braille." Seattle Weekly /// Department of Justice job notice (pdf) [link from The Volokh Conspiracy blog] /// Daily Telegraph

"Where Feet, Fist, and Faith Collide"
Pastor John Renken leads his flock in solemn prayer to the Heavenly Father and then, not an hour later in the back room of their meeting house, he's screaming at his parishioners: "Hard punches! Finish the fight! To the head! To the head!" It's Xtreme Ministries, of Memphis, where mixed martial arts is helping to re-masculinize the gospel (to correct, as another practitioner put it, having "raised a generation of little boys" as churches have catered mostly to women and children). New York Times

A Dog Chastity Belt – Seriously
It only sounds like a joke. Breeders like it because they can take charge of in-heat cycles without invasive surgery. (But don't tell anybody about that; show them this photo of the dog all harnessed up, and let them think this is just another shrink-wrapped dog toy on their supermarket shelf.) (Bonus: Desperately horny males ferociously gnaw at the straps, but so far haven't broken through.) San Francisco Chronicle /// Pet Anti-Breeding System

Teachers' Union Poster Child
Alan Rosenfeld, 64, a New York City lawyer and real estate entrepreneur with 12 properties, is also a schoolteacher, though he hasn't been in a classroom since 2002. He's one of those Rubber Room teachers, whose contract calls for full salary and benefits even though the chancellor thinks he's a sexual menace to his female students (proven only once, with wrist-slap punishment). Rosenfeld's salary is $100,000 a year plus health care plus retirement benefits (that would, if he retired today, get him $82,000 a year). New York Post

Free Judge Klein!
By now, everybody knows how the lawyers' class-action racket works. Lawyer digs up a Bad Guy and a Lead Plaintiff and some Victims. Judge certifies the "class." Lawyer and Bad Guy settle. Lead Plaintiff gets a nominal amount, Lawyer a big fat fee, Victims bupkis. Retired Los Angeles County judge Brett Klein got drafted back to duty to approve or reject the final terms of Windsor Fashions's class-action settlement for mistreating credit-card customers. Terms: Lead Plaintiff, $2,500, Victims, $10 gift vouchers, Lawyer, $125,000. Judge Klein said, Enough of this! I'll approve it only if the Lawyer also gets his $125,000 in $10 gift vouchers, too. Sweet! (Upshot: The legal establishment rebelled; the County bar association re-classified Klein as now permanently retired.) Los Angeles Times

Meanwhile, Over on the Left Tail of the Bell Curve . . .

Your Weekly "Hey, Watch This!" Moment: A guy in a Detroit suburb built a snow sled with a motorcycle muffler, a piece of pipe, gunpowder, match heads, and gasoline, to power himself down a hill, and had a pal light the wick. Result: hospital. He's 62; you'd think he'd know better, but Alcohol Was Involved. Detroit Free Press

Inexplicable: Mr. Chamil Guadarrama, 30, was arrested in Springfield, Mass., after a store security guard spotted him with 75 bottles of lotion stuffed down his pants legs, which made him look like the Michelin Man, silly and nearly immobile. Said a cop, "They could not fit Mr. Guadarrama into the cruiser because his pants were bursting at the seams and he could not bend over." The Republican (Springfield)

Craig Show, 49, filed a lawsuit against Idaho state police and the Bonner County sheriff because they searched a bag on his motorcycle when he was stopped for DUI last year. That bag had been blessed by a medicine woman in 1995 and had remained closed ever since, and when the cops opened it, the mojo got out, and now Show's life is ruined, he says. United Press International (citing Bonner County Daily Bee, Sandpoint, Idaho)

Lame: He's only in high school so maybe the quality of his excuses will improve. He was caught with 150 snapshots of clothed females' body parts, which may or may not have been illegal to take, but then he offered the rationale that he had to go extracurricular because the sex education at Lake Travis High School (Austin, Tex.) is so poor. KXAN-TV (Austin)

Recurring Themes: (1) Crooks continue to brag about their crimes on Facebook, which cops monitor. (Wrote a grateful cop, to assault suspect Christopher Crego: "It was due to your diligence in keeping us informed [on Facebook] that now you are under arrest.") (2) Some anger-management counselors can't even talk themselves out of going postal when the need arises. (3) Amateur counterfeiters continue to settle for "Ehhh, that's close enough." (4) Crooks continue to call on the police when they need help, as though cops don't ever receive "be on the lookout for" photos. Buffalo News /// Washington Post /// Associated Press via KHOU-TV (Houston, Tex.) /// Charlotte Observer

Angst, Confusion, Crisis

A few municipalities have made wearing saggy pants illegal, but now two Florida guys have earned a patent for pants that only look like they're falling down. Comply with the law and keep your cred. ABA Journal

Speaking of the Patent Office, its Chief Communications Officer confirmed last week that the agency absolutely does not accept faxes that arrive upside down. If they get even one upside down page, they'll send you back a "Notice of Document Faxed Upside Down" instructing you to resend all of your fax, no matter how many pages. BNet blog

Life Imitates Police Squad: South Bend, Ind., police officer A chased a car theft suspect on foot, soon joined by officer B and his K-9. However, K-9 veered off and attacked officer A. A pulled out his gun and shot at K-9 (missing). That ticked off officer B, who started swinging at A, and the two were on. Other officers arrived, caught the suspect, and pulled A and B apart. K-9 then attacked a couple of those officers. South Bend Tribune

Saugatuck Township, Mich., voters will go to the polls in May on a referendum to raise the property tax to pay for the increased expense incurred by the town to fight a lawsuit that claims its property taxes are too high. Seriously. Grand Rapids Press

The California State Historical Resources Commission laid claim to new property for its historical register, namely, the detritus left on the Moon by Apollo 11 astronauts (since so many of the items were products of California companies). Most of the items had been jettisoned to make the astronauts' return flight lighter, and included tools, a flag, food bags, and, yes, bags of human waste. San Francisco Chronicle

Akbar Zeb must be one of Pakistan's most valuable diplomatic aces because they keep floating his name as potential ambassador to United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, and now Saudi Arabia. All three countries have rejected him, though, because in their Arabic dictionaries, "akbar zeb" means "biggest dick." Foreign Policy (citing Arab News)

Below The Fold

"Menstruating Ghost" Film Stirs Controversy Herald Sun (Melbourne) (Australian Associated Press story)

Bike Riding After Midnight Leads to Clown Attack Beaumont Enterprise

Childcare, Chinese Style: Rickshaw Driver Chains 2-Year-Old Son to a Post While He's at Work Daily Mail (London)

Someone With a Worse Sex Life Than You

Ian Stafford, 59, was sentenced to two years in jail after pleading guilty to a spree of panty thefts committed while he was mayor of Preesall, England. It appears that a number of the raids also resulted in happy endings. (Bonus: beyond-reasonable-doubt mugshot) Lancashire Telegraph

Your Weekly Jury Duty
[In America, you're presumed innocent . . . until the mug shot is released]

We don't know this guy's name, but he could be a "domestic batter[er]." The Smoking Gun

More Things To Worry About

Things You Thought Didn't Happen: New babies' DNA is routinely taken at hospitals for medical screenings. Did you know that several states keep that DNA, by name, on file forever? Is there a problem? CNN

News That Sounds Like a Joke: The lender will soon foreclose on the building in downtown Atlanta that's now a homeless shelter serving about 700 people, who will become, presumably, homeless homeless people. Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The cursed Taliban shot down a supply helicopter en route to a British forward operating base in Afghanistan, leaving the cook with only with a cupboard full of Spam and no re-supply due for six weeks. Hence, sweet and sour Spam. Spam fritters. Spam carbonara. Spam stroganoff. Stir fried Spam. Daily Telegraph

And For Further Review . . .

A new book on Adolf Hitler is out, examining his medical history. Some popular legends were debunked, e.g., he wasn't missing a testicle, did not have syphilis, was not delusional. On the other hand, he had flatulence something awful. His officers were known to hold perfumed hankies over their noses when he entered their bunkers. His personal doctor (who may have been a quack) injected him with a primitive erectile-dysfunction drug made from the semen and prostate of young bulls. The researchers found that, in all, Hitler took 82 different medications with as many as 28 a day. Daily Mail (London)

Newsrangers: David Abdoo, Ron Corby, Peter Smagorinsky, Bex Zumbruski, Steve Dunn, Stephen Taylor, H.Thompson, Mike Mendenhall, Larry Seltzer, Gary Goldberg, Neil Gimon, Susan Holland, Brian McIntyre, Joe Harman, Jeremy Kitt, Chrys Rodrigue, and Stefan Creaser, and the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors

Town To Scale

2010-02-07T22:29:00Z

Check out the town Michael Paul Smith grew up in at 1/24th scale. Also with some of the coolest old cars all in perfect condition because they are models. There will be 2 links, the first one will have the story and thumbnail pictures, the second will be a slideshow of the pictures which look like a real town. Smith puts his hand or face in a few of the shots for comparison so as to see the true size of the model.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24796741@N05/sets/72157604247242338/?page=2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24796741@N05/sets/72157604247242338/show/with/2346008881/

Ground Frog Day

2010-02-07T14:45:00Z

Snohomish, Washington holds Ground Frog Day each year with their Meteorological Frognosticator, Snohomish Slew.
Snohomish Slew is a very large bull frog who gets center stage much like Puxtatwny Phil does in Pennsylvania on Groundhog Day. Frogorama 2010 was held on January 30, so unfortunately we have missed it for this year.
Oh well, there is always next year.
http://www.groundfrogday.org/

picture from Yahoo images.

Broke Beak

2010-02-07T00:06:00Z

The bald eagle affectionately called Cyrano could have faced euthanasia due to the terrible injury to his beak, from a fishing line. Fortunately dentist, Kirk Johnson, was asked if he could come up with a prosthesis for the regal bird. He did just that, with the same substance crowns are made of held in place by poster putty. Dr. Johnson even used a yellow highlighter to color the piece to sort of match the natural beak. Cyrano, while doing well, will probably not be able to be returned to the wild. At least this beautiful bird won't have to be put down and will receive the loving care he deserves.
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=11943748

Google Translation

2010-02-06T15:07:00Z

I have a Google Alert keyed to my name, as most authors do. Imagine my surprise to find myself cited on a Taiwanese sci-fi fan page whose name Google chooses to translate thus. I hope the AMA does not find out I'm practicing cancer medicine without a license!

Click to enlarge image, if necessary!

Tragedy or Hope?

2010-02-06T15:02:00Z

Salamander Sam: Back in Action

2010-02-06T05:21:00Z

As very few of you are probably aware, I have been away for a while. Now that I have returned from winter vacation I can start posting again, and I will start with a few weird things I have found around the internet over the past few months.

First, we have an ad that I noticed right here on Weird Universe:

I know Microsoft is evil, but getting their rival to link to their competing service? That's just terrible.

Another Google ad, this one somewhat more dubious:

For those of you who don't know, Brandon Tartikoff was an NBC executive in the 1980s.

Next, we have a few bizarre suggestions from Netflix (if any are too small to read, simply right click and open the image in a new page):

I give up, what do The Powerpuff Girls and Star Trek: The Motion Picture have in common?

Note the related genres.

I don't know what's stranger, the related movies or the fact that this is one of the results for the search "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (Don't believe me? See for yourself)

And finally, an announcement. Over winter break I came into possession of a machine that was almost literally built to spread weirdness. I am of course referring to a 16mm movie projector. I only have a few mildly weird films at the moment, such as a 1940s John Deere farm safety film and a Bell Telephone Company film that reminds businesspeople to dial their own calls and not bother the switchboard operator, but over the next few months I should be able to find more weird and wonderful films to share with the world. As soon as I figure out a good way to transfer 16mm films to my computer I will start uploading some of the weirder films in my small collection.

For anyone who may be interested, here is a picture of the projector (I'm still waiting for the films to arrive, I got them during winter break in Houston and it is taking a while to have them shipped to Chicago):

Go Ahead, Waste My Time

2010-02-06T02:54:01Z

Yes, my title is a really lousy rendition of the "Go ahead, make my day" line as uttered by Clint Eastwood in Sudden Impact. But it's relevant because this post is about a website dedicated to some of the cheesiest lines ever spoken in action movies. The Quotable Action Hero blog is guaranteed to waste at least fifteen minutes of your life. So what's weird about it? It may just be a matter of opinion, but these are not your typical quotations. In fact, if the blog author didn't include the movie's name along with the quote, I would have no idea where most of these lines came from. What do you think?

Human Wave Pool

2010-02-06T00:15:01Z

I tried to see actual H-2-O, but I never did catch sight of the water. When people say "the crush of humanity", this may be the perfect example. Or maybe this is the "gene pool" -- needs more chlorine!!

How would you know if someone was drowning?

Shrunken Head Kit

2010-02-05T14:36:00Z

Purchase yours now!

Spotted by Regina Orio.

More Solid When Disturbed

2010-02-05T02:44:00Z

I learned something today about non-Newtonian liquids -- cornstarch and water!! Two different examples!!

Walking on liquid!!

Speaker activated liquid!!

An interesting collection of these on YouTube!!

What's the principle behind this?