Weird Universe Blog — February 14, 2024
Cotton Balls and Cardboard Boxes
Swiss artist Zimoun makes noisy art by causing hundreds of cotton balls to rub against cardboard boxes.At least, he consistently describes the white objects as "cotton balls." They don't look or sound like cotton to me. But then again, they're constantly in motion, so it's hard to see exactly what they are.
via Book of Joe
Posted By: Alex - Wed Feb 14, 2024 -
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Category: Art | Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults
RIP Günter Brus
This video is a little gross, but hardly much by contemporary horror cinema standards.From his Wikipedia entry:
Brus was a co-founder in 1964 of Viennese Actionism (German: Wiener Aktionismus) with Otto Muehl, Hermann Nitsch, and Rudolf Schwarzkogler. His aggressively presented actionism intentionally disregarded conventions and taboos, with the intent of shocking the viewer. At the Kunst und Revolution event at the University of Vienna in 1968, Brus urinated into a glass then proceeded to cover his body in his own excrement, and during the performance Brus also sang the Austrian National Anthem while masturbating. Brus ended the piece by drinking his own urine and inducing vomiting, and was subsequently arrested. Through this piece and his other performance works, Brus hoped to reveal the still fascist essence of the nation. This performance created a public outrage at the time and the participants were dubbed by the media as uniferkel or "University Piggies." Sentenced to 6 months in prison after the event and subsequent public reactions, he fled to Berlin with his family and returned to Austria in 1976.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Feb 14, 2024 -
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Category: Misbehavior, Rebellion, Acting-out and General Naughtiness | Performance Art | Outrageous Excess | Europe | Twentieth Century | Nausea, Revulsion and Disgust
February 13, 2024
Self-Combusting Pistachios
The German Transport Information Service warns about the possibility of pistachios self-combusting:Fat decomposition may proceed as follows:
by hydrolytic/enzymatic fat cleavage or
by oxidative fat cleavage
Hydrolytic/enzymatic fat cleavage:
If the critical water content of the pistachio nuts is exceeded, this promotes hydrolytic/enzymatic fat cleavage. Fat-cleaving enzymes are activated by the elevated water content. The additional action of light and heat may accelerate this process. Free fatty acids sometimes have an unpleasant odor and taste. In the event of extended storage or improper cargo care, these cause the cargo to become rancid.
The free fatty acids formed are consumed by respiration processes in the pistachio nuts to form carbon dioxide and water, a process which is associated with considerable evolution of heat.
Self-heating of pistachio nuts is an extremely vigorous process, as the consumption of fatty acids by respiration processes is associated with a considerably greater evolution of heat than is the case with the respiration equation for carbohydrates. Here too, as with cereals, the spoilage process proceeds in a type of chain reaction, because heat and water are formed by the fatty acids consumed by respiration, which in turn contribute to an intensification of the process.
This shouldn't be a problem for any pistachios you've got at home, unless you're storing A LOT of them.
via Dave Barry
Posted By: Alex - Tue Feb 13, 2024 -
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Category: Food | Firefighting, Arson, Wildfires, Infernos and Other Conflagrations
The Belgian-Colombian War
A short essay here has a few more details.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 13, 2024 -
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Category: War | Europe | South America | Nineteenth Century | Twentieth Century | Love & Romance
February 12, 2024
The February 12 Dance
Interpretive dancer Gladys Bowen doing her February 12 dance.
The Hope Pioneer - Feb 13, 1936
Pittsburgh Press - Jan 19, 1936
Coos Bay Times - Jan 21, 1936
Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 12, 2024 -
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Category: 1930s | Dance
As Above
Very trippy. How much of the six minutes can you stand, without chemical assistance?
Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 12, 2024 -
Comments (4)
Category: Science | Video | Abstract, Non-figurative, Non-representational
February 11, 2024
Merrie Metric
According to the listing in the April 1983 Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the purpose of Merrie Metric was, "Promoting the interests of those concerned with the desirability of adopting the metric system."I haven't found any use of Merrie Metric outside of the Patent and Trademark Gazette, but I'm curious what kind of uses her creators imagined for her. Were they going to sell metric rulers and tape measures with her picture on them?
Posted By: Alex - Sun Feb 11, 2024 -
Comments (4)
Category: Instruments and Measuring Devices
Unauthorized Dwellings 32
Posted By: Paul - Sun Feb 11, 2024 -
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Category: Unauthorized Dwellings | Nineteenth Century
February 10, 2024
Kilty as charged
A case of being guilty of being Kilty.
The Guardian - Feb 25, 1969
Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 10, 2024 -
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Category: Law | Judges | Odd Names | 1960s
Nervous Norvus, “The Blackout Song”
The creator's Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 10, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Emotions | Music | 1950s | Screams, Grunts and Other Exclamations
