Psst Kid, Wanna Buy a Goldfish?

Every so often you come across an article in the news that leaves you shaking your head and wondering what the world is coming to. This is one of those stories. Joan Higgens, aged 66, a pet shop owner in northern England has been fined, given a curfew and electronically tagged, because she sold a goldfish to a fourteen year old. Apparently it is illegal to sell pets to anyone under the age of sixteen, as minors are deemed incapable of taking care of the animals.

Posted By: Nethie - Wed Mar 31, 2010 - Comments (9)
Category: Animals, Crime, Government, Law, Pets, Stupidity

Follies of the Mad Men #94

Are you as grossed out as I am by the thought of rivers of cow's milk running through the countryside? What if you fell into one?!? Yuck! And what's at the source of these streams? A giant cow being perpetually milked? Double yuck!

Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 30, 2010 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Farming, Business, Advertising, Products, Fantasy, Body Fluids

Chicken Race

cocotte minute
Uploaded by amoroso78.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Mar 27, 2010 - Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Death, Food, Cartoons, Europe

Just Some Weird Crap!

A New York jeweller briefly owned the world’s most valuable pet earlier this year when his golden retriever swallowed a $20,000 diamond by mistake. Sollie, the dog, had accompanied his owner George Kaufman to the latter’s jewellery shop where Mr. Kaufman and his partner were intending to inspect some gemstones. Unfortunately a diamond weighing 3 carats fell to the floor where it was immediately snatched up by Sollie and swallowed. After a vet recommended that nature be allowed to take its course, Kaufman spent the next three days carefully collecting and dissecting everything Sollie produced before finally retrieving the gem (Telegraph).

Perhaps he should have contacted Ireland’s first official dog-waste removal company, Mr. Scoopy-Poo. The brainchild of Irish entrepreneur William O’Brian, Mr. Scoopy-Poo (motto, “Business stinks – but it’s picking up!”) will clean up after your dirty dogs into biodegradable bags and hygienically dispose of them, for a price of course. After all, where there’s muck there’s brass, and occasionally diamonds (Irish Examiner).

But O’Brian may be missing a trick here, why dispose of faeces when you could be selling it as the latest must have fashion item? What sounds like insanity may be an idea whose time has come. How else can you explain not one but two manure-based products in the same week?

First up is London based artist and designer INSA, who has produced a pair of 10” stilettos incorporating elephant dung. And this isn’t just dung from any old elephant either, this is dung from the very same elephant family that produced the infamous extra ingredient for a series of paintings made by artist Chris Ofili in the 90s. Yup, in these shoes you are literally standing on celebrity elephant dung (Huffington Post).

And hot on the precipitous heels of INSA is Geneva based watchmaker Yvan Arpa, who has crafted his latest $11,000 wrist-candy from toad skin and dinosaur doo. The watches, to be made and sold by Swiss watchmakers Artya, feature a face cut from a 100 million year-old “coprolite”, or fossil faeces, left behind by an ancient plant-eater in what is now the United States. And the quality American materials don’t just amount to a pretty face as the strap is lovingly crafted from the hide of an American cane toad. The mechanism though is pure Swiss craftsmanship (Star Tribune).

Image: Maggie Smith / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Tue Mar 16, 2010 - Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Design and Designers, Fashion, Shoes, Pets, Dogs, Excrement

Secret Techniques of the Electric Company & Party of Five:  Not Much Brighter Than the Original

I have two news oddities to present from one of my local papers. The first from The Greensburg Daily News I didn't think was so odd, I would expect the electric company to do such things to avoid displacing wildlife, but I couldn't figure out if the 'secret technique' was really an extraordinary trade secret (I would actually expect them to want to share such info so other companies could put it to use), or just a case of a lazy reporter.
The second from the same paper details five new residents of the county jail. Alas, there is only one mugshot. These five actually had uniformed police knock on their door, and they didn't answer. So the police set up a perimeter around their apartment for two hours while waiting for the search warrant. With two hours to play with, none of the suspects noticed a cop banging on the door or the perimeter placed around their apartment? And they couldn't destroy a small amount of dope and paraphernalia in the meantime?

Posted By: qualityleashdog - Wed Mar 03, 2010 - Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Drugs, Inebriation and Intoxicants, Stupidity, Stupid Criminals, Your Daily Jury Duty

Captive Wild Woman

Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 26, 2010 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Horror, Movies, 1940s, Fictional Monsters

Birds to Perform New Guitar Numbers

No, that's not a typo and this is nothing to do with the classic 60s rock band. London gallery and performing arts centre the Barbican is hosting a new work by French "composer" Celeste Boursier-Mougenot in which dozens of zebra finches create improvised compositions by landing and perching on strategically placed electric guitars. Titled the Curve, Boursier-Mougenot's latest installation takes the form of a walk-through aviary, hence the finches' reaction to the visitors becomes itself part of the exhibit. In an interview with the BBC, the composer hinted that his next work will probably involve shoals of goldfish in a tank, and will most likely not be a walk-through (Barbican Centre).

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Thu Feb 25, 2010 - Comments (9)
Category: Animals, Art, Performance Art, Music

16mm Theater #1

16mm Theater is my new series here on Weird Universe, in which I will share some of the stranger films in my 16mm collection. Today's feature: The Rainbow Bear, 1970

The only way I can describe this film is "acid trip," and if you watch it I'm sure you will agree. Weirder still is the fact that this was apparently made for children, as it was produced by American Educational Films. And the weirdest fact about this short is that it was directed by Bill Meléndez, perhaps best known for A Charlie Brown Christmas.



Sorry about the poor quality, my projector doesn't have a telecine mode and I don't have a proper video camera.

Posted By: Salamander Sam - Fri Feb 12, 2010 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Dreams and Nightmares, Drugs, Surrealism, Cartoons, 1970s

Cross species cooperation

It's encouraging to see different species cooperating.



For more squirrel and Star Wars interaction go to this link:

http://www.webofentertainment.com/2010/02/star-wars-chipmunk.html

Posted By: gdanea - Tue Feb 09, 2010 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals

Follies of the Mad Men #87

Musical gorilla = humorous.

Relevance of musical gorilla to candy bars: uncertain.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 09, 2010 - Comments (9)
Category: Animals, Business, Advertising, Products, Music, Candy