Category:
Weird Universe
Over the weekend, I added a form to the right sidebar that allows you to get daily WU updates by email. So if you happen to forget to visit WU, no worries. We'll magically appear in your inbox.
The delivery is made by Feedburner -- which, in turn, is owned by Google. Plenty of other sites use Feedburner. It's actually one of those features I should have added to the site years ago, but better late than never.
Feedburner promises they'll never give your email address to spammers, and I've never heard any complaints about the service in that regard. I have read some complaints about the service being a bit glitchy, but we'll deal with that issue when and if it arises. I tested it over the weekend, and it all seems to be working as it should.
Change of plans for the first WU cruise. The Kate Gosselin cruise is out. Instead we'll be sailing on the Tropical Island Paradise, built by
Yacht Island Design. It features its own volcano! Once a day the volcano will erupt, shooting out deadly fireballs and streams of lava.
Of course, we'll have to wait for the ship to be built...
(via
Nourishing Obscurity)
A few weeks ago, over at the Museum of Hoaxes, I described how I
came into possession of a miniature Cardiff Giant. I then decided to send it on an around-the-world tour. This involves sending it to volunteer hosts in various farflung regions who show it the sights in their neck of the woods, send me photos of its adventures, and then ship it on to the next volunteer.
The giant is
currently in Perth, Austrialia, and I'm looking for people in that part of the world willing to temporarily adopt him. "That part of the world" is meant, in the broadest sense, to encompass all of Asia, Australasia, and India. Because while I've got a lot of volunteers from the U.S. and Europe, I haven't got any from anywhere else. And I'd like the giant to see as much of the world as possible.
So I'm posting here to see if there are any Weird Universe readers in exotic locales who'd like to play host to the giant. If you're interested,
let me know.
Even if you live in boring-old Europe and the U.S. and you'd like to host the giant, let me know also. Because eventually the giant will be touring these regions. (possibly very soon if no one from Asia/Australia can be found.) I'll add you to the list.
Just one word of caution. If you agree to host the giant, you HAVE to send him to someone else after a few weeks. If you decide to keep him permanently, you'll incur the Curse of the Cardiff Giant, which is too awful to describe in words, though it's rumored to be similar to that melting flesh scene at the end of
Raiders of the Lost Ark.
What has the brilliant cartoonist Rick Altergott--who created our fabulous site banner--been up to lately?
He's started a new online strip about a young woman's romantic travails. And he's offering free sex advice!
Episode 1 here.
Episode 2 here.
Sex advice here.
Paul's post about the
combo pocket-knife/revolver attracted the attention of boing boing and gizmodo, and the subsequent traffic spike promptly crashed our server, taking us offline since last night. Our apologies. I think I've got everything working again. Please return to the regular weirdness.
Update: I see Paul beat me to the explanation. But one other thing I should note. I temporarily disabled "member tracking" in order to alleviate the strain on the server. I'm honestly not quite sure what this tracks, exactly, or if we ever need to have it on at all. But the webhost told me it would help to turn it off. So I did.
Sorry for our downtime! When we got linked-to by BOING-BOING and GIZMODO yesterday, it swamped us!
But we're back, thanks to Tech Wizard Alex!
Friends and Fellow WU-vies:
I note that some comments are trending into personal vituperation. May I ask that all offenders tone down their remarks and respect our forum....?
Otherwise, the Righteous Hammer of Wrath will have to be employed.
Thanks!
Weird Universe is officially twitterfied and facebooked. Links to our social network pages can be found in the "About Weird Universe" box in the right-hand column.
There's no reason to visit Weird Universe's facebook or twitter pages if you visit here, since WU posts (or, at least, the titles) will simply be reposted on those sites automatically — with a slight delay. However, if you feel a need to "like" us, or "follow" us, you now can.
Chuck and I have no idea yet of what happened to his missing post--but we're on the case!
Stay tuned!
I think most regular readers of WU would agree that our contributor Patty is at the heart and soul of this misguided enterprise. She makes terrific posts, and always manages to comment kindly and intelligently on what others do. This blog would not be the same without her.
I've been wanting to send her a little token of thanks, but could not come up with the perfect item--until I was out book-hunting today and came across a copy of the volume pictured to the side.
Patty--send me your snailmail address privately through the SUGGEST LINK mechanism, and this invaluable compendium of "boners" will go out to you in Monday's mail.
And thanks again for all your creativity!