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Category:
Education

The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Deaths

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Once upon a time, there was a kindly old lady who specialized in creating gruesome murder dioramas. Her name was Frances Glessner Lee, and her little scenes went on to educate criminologists for decades.

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Follow the link for a whole book about her.



Posted By: Paul | Date: Tue May 08, 2012 | Comments (8)
Category: Crime, Death, Eccentrics, Education, Toys, 1940's, 1950's

Cranberry Tour



Wooden bridge inspection. Arrow dipping. All pinnacles of monotony and boredom. Does the student-led cranberry tour measure up to these high standrards?

You decide!
Posted By: Paul | Date: Tue Apr 17, 2012 | Comments (2)
Category: Boredom, Education, Regionalism, Farming, Documentaries

Weird Shorts: A Rude Awakening!

When Iranian national Golshifteh Farahani decided to take a stand against Iran's notoriously strict rules for women, she wanted maximun exposure. So what better way for the Paris based actress to show Ahmedinejad the finger than to show a whole lot more than than, by posing naked for a French magazine. Well it certainly got their attention (plus the attention of a many others judging by the huge upsurge in visitors to her Facebook page from her home country), the Iranian government has banned her from ever returning home. According to Ms. Farahani, an official from Iran's Ministry of Culture told her that Iran didn't need any actors or actresses, which was especially ironic since Iran won it's first ever Golden Globe award this year for the film "A Separation" (The Independent).

From the nude to the rude now, as popular British daytime quiz “Countdown” stirred up a bit of controversy this week when a contestant won one round with the word “wanker”. The object of the game is to make the longest possible word from a random selection of vowels and consonants in just 30 seconds, and in this particular round this meant the letters RAEPKWAEN. Mark Murphy’s six letter offering left host Nick Hewer at a loss for words, but was the longest and is in the dictionary, hence took the round after his opponent could do no better than 5. Clearly though “wanker” shouldn’t have netted Mark the points, he could have had “reawaken” for eight (Orange).

A slightly more pleasant shock greeted teacher Parijat Saha from Dinajpur in India when he checked his bank account online one evening. In a classic Monopoly moment, a bank error in his favour gave him a balance of 490 billion rupees (about $9.7 billion). Mr. Saha promptly rang the State Bank of India to report the mistake, joking that the bank appeared to have so much money it was overflowing into his account. A bank spokesman later claimed that the funds were uncleared, and in any case couldn’t have been withdrawn (Digital Spy).

Finally, a three-night astronomy special on British television scored two spectacular successes this week. The BBC show “Stargazing Live”, hosted physicist Brian Cox and comedian Dara O’Briain live from Jodrell Bank, encouraged viewers to get more involved with astronomy, both from their gardens and online, and has led to a 500% surge in telescope sales in the UK in the last few days, but more spectacularly, one viewer may have actually discovered a new exo-planet after visiting a website featured on the show. Chris Holmes was one of sixty thousand people who were inspired to visit planethunter.org after watching the show, and despite having no more than a passing interest before, he identified a possible eclipse of the star SPH10066540 by a Neptune sized object in a 90 day orbit (BBC News).
Posted By: Dumbfounded | Date: Thu Jan 19, 2012 | Comments (3)
Category: Accidents, Goofs and Screw-ups, Body, Nudism, Education, Entertainment, Actors, Science

Art School

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This ad was a trap! If you were able to replicate this insane bird, you received a visit from the men in white coats with butterfly nets, not art teachers.

Original ad here. (Scroll down.)
Posted By: Paul | Date: Sat Jan 14, 2012 | Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Art, Education, Brain Damage

Stamp Day for Superman



Along with nabbing bad-guy Blinky, Superman sells Treasury Bonds, in this US-government-sponsored short.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Thu Mar 03, 2011 | Comments (2)
Category: PSA's, Education, Government, Money, 1950's

Solar Death Ray



Now that is a science project!

Read more here.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Mon Jan 31, 2011 | Comments (4)
Category: Death, Destruction, Education, Hobbies and DIY, Science, Experiments, Technology, Teenagers

Holiday from Rules?



Those darn anarchists have to start somewhere!
Posted By: Paul | Date: Tue Jan 11, 2011 | Comments (3)
Category: PSA's, Education, Children, 1950's

Follies of the Mad Men #129



Doesn't everyone learn to read off cereal boxes?
Posted By: Paul | Date: Fri Dec 10, 2010 | Comments (3)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Education, Food, 1950's

RISD Signage

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Sign mounted on a lamp post in the middle of Rhode Island School of Design art school territory. Click the image for a better view.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Thu Nov 18, 2010 | Comments (4)
Category: Art, Education, Humor, Pranks, Signage

Follies of the Mad Men #110

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[From Life magazine for June 8 1942.]

1) I have never seen another Schlitz ad with a bear.

2) Bears were not a Schlitz mascot.

3) The text of the ad makes no mention of the bear.

WHAT IS THIS BEAR DOING HERE?

Was there a famous trained bear circa 1942 that Schlitz wanted to associate themselves with? Do bears in the wild have a particular fondness for Schlitz? What university does this bear teach at?

So many questions from one little ad.....
Posted By: Paul | Date: Mon Jun 21, 2010 | Comments (8)
Category: Animals, Business, Advertising, Products, Education, 1940's, Alcohol
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All original content in posts is Copyright © 2008 by the author of the post, either Alex Boese ("Alex"), Paul Di Filippo ("Paul"), or Chuck Shepherd ("Chuck"). All rights reserved. The banner illustration at the top of this page is Copyright © 2008 by Rick Altergott.