Category:
Violence
Violence
Woodpecker eats brains
Nature is brutal. And apparently, woodpeckers are particularly so.Smithsonian.com offers some background info:
In 2015, Harold Greeney trained his camera on a mourning dove nest stitched into the crook of a cactus. As an ornithologist, Greeney studies the love lives of birds—cooperative breeding in nightingale-thrushes, parenting strategies of spotted barbtails, breeding biology in speckled hummingbirds, you name it. His goal today was to capture the breeding habits of doves in an urban setting. Instead, he captured perhaps the most horrifying bird-on-bird behavior the world has ever seen...
Greeney has a possible explanation as to what’s happening—but it probably won't make you feel any better. When Gila woodpeckers get thirsty, he speculates, they crack open a couple of nestling heads like you or I might open a six-pack.
Greeney has a possible explanation as to what’s happening—but it probably won't make you feel any better. When Gila woodpeckers get thirsty, he speculates, they crack open a couple of nestling heads like you or I might open a six-pack.
Warning: the video is not for the squeamish!
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jun 20, 2019 -
Comments (0)
Category: Nature, Violence
Beat your wife tonight… at bowling
I think it was 1973 when a Detroit bowling alley first got the idea to use the tagline "Beat your wife tonight" in an ad. Protests quickly followed. Strangely, this didn't discourage other bowling alleys from then using the same tagline. The last use of it I can find was in 1980.
Lansing State Journal - July 5, 1973
Southern Illinoisan - May 16, 1980
Fort Lauderdale News - July 15, 1973
Posted By: Alex - Sat Aug 04, 2018 -
Comments (3)
Category: Violence, Advertising, 1970s
Beware of Killer Umbrellas
About five years ago (on June 30, 2010), Lynn Stevens was sitting on the beach, minding her own business, when an umbrella came plummeting out of the sky and impaled her leg. Here's her account of the incident:
"It was a very windy day and the umbrella was lifted straight up in the air. It came straight back down and went through my thigh. The pole went into my leg about four inches and it just missed my femoral artery. It didn’t tumble like you see them do so often. Instead, it went straight up and came straight down... It took four men to hold the umbrella steady in the wind to prevent it from doing more damage. They literally sawed off the pole right there on the beach and left about a 12-inch length of the pole sticking out of my leg. They took me to PRMC and the rest of it was taken out in the operating room. It was a little unnerving because the nurses and doctors looked a little astonished to see the umbrella pole sticking out of my leg because I figured they had probably seen everything."
That's pretty terrifying. The worst part is that there's not much you can do to prevent randomly being attacked by an umbrella that falls silently from the sky, because it's other people's umbrellas (improperly set in the sand) that are going to get you. You're at the mercy of their stupidity.
Image source: Nikos Patsiouris, Flickr.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 02, 2015 -
Comments (5)
Category: Death, Violence
Nurse goes nuts
Another day in Florida: nurse rips off all her clothes and starts attacking a patient, who's reported to be uninjured. The police officer says, "The whole thing is unusual." [clickorlando.com]
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jun 15, 2015 -
Comments (9)
Category: Violence
Honk-O-Bag
Please nominate a celebrity from 2014 that you would like to see modeled in punching-bag format.
Original ad here. (Page 13)
Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 05, 2014 -
Comments (8)
Category: Celebrities, Toys, Violence, 1950s
Grape Nuts Flakes Promotes Fisticuffs
Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 19, 2013 -
Comments (9)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Food, Regionalism, Violence, 1950s
Giant Slingshots
Slingshots taken from young vandals, May 1952. If the police hadn't stopped them, the kids probably would have been building full-sized trebuchets next.
"Salem, Mass., May 8 — Police Lt. Walter Broderick tests one of two huge slingshots confiscated after boys had broken 60 windows in two local factories. Police said the giant weapons could hurl a five-pound rock more than 200 yards."
Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 27, 2013 -
Comments (9)
Category: Violence, 1950s, Weapons
The Uprising of the Cows
We've been warning about the threat posed by cows for quite a while here on WU (see here, here, and here), and recent news confirms the danger they pose. A 68-year-old woman was walking her dog in a field in rural England, when she was attacked and trampled by cows. Her dog survived. And just a few months ago, a 46-year-old hiker in England was similarly attacked and trampled by cows. Has the uprising of the cows begun? [ibtimes.co.uk]The linked article includes some tips on what to do should you find yourself facing a field of potentially hostile cows:
- avoid entering the field
- let go of your dog if the cows charge
- don't try to outrun the cows
- run downhill if possible
- make yourself as loud and big as possible
Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 15, 2012 -
Comments (20)
Category: Violence, Cows
The Violent Noah’s Ark Boys
Allan Holtz calls himself "the stripper". (He's a comic-strip historian.) On his blog, he recently directed his readers' attention to the Noah's Ark Boys — an odd series drawn by Ben McCutcheon that briefly ran in the Chicago Sunday Tribune back in 1911.Holtz explains that the Noah's Ark Boys strip was inspired by the Noah's Ark figurines that were (and still are) the toys of choice in many religious homes. Children were supposed to learn wholesome Biblical values by playing with these toys. But McCutcheon evidently learned a slightly darker lesson, because every week his strip concluded with the Boys on the receiving end of some kind of horrific violence: burnt, blown apart, frozen, crushed, etc. Although the Bible is pretty violent, when it comes down to it. So maybe he did get the right message.
Click the images to enlarge.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 17, 2012 -
Comments (6)
Category: Religion, Violence, Comics
Follies of the Mad Men #186
Before The Muppets came--sadistic, coffee-touting puppets?
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 26, 2012 -
Comments (6)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Food, Violence, 1960s
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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, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. 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. Contact Us |