Weird Universe Archive
July 2008
July 13, 2008
Pavlovian Fish
Ivan Pavlov famously conditioned dogs to salivate every time they heard a dinner bell. The U.S. Army hopes to use a similar technique to train fish in Buzzards Bay off the coast of Massachusetts. According to the Cape Cod Times, the experiment:houses 5,000 juvenile black sea bass in a dome-shaped structure at the bottom of Buzzards Bay, for the purpose of feeding them after playing a 280 Hz tone. The study is being led by Scott Lindell, director of MBL's Scientific Aquaculture Program, to determine whether the caged fish — once accustomed to the tone then released into the wild — will return to the dome for recapture when the tone is played. The hope is to create a less harmful way to fish or better replenish natural fish stock, project officials told the Times in March.
The experiment has raised concerns among a consumer advocacy group, who are suing the Army, but that's not what interests me. What interests me is whether the fish salivate when they hear the tone. Do fish, in fact, have salivary glands? An answer from genuineideas.com:
Although the most well developed glands are found in mammals, many other vertebrates and invertebrates have salivary glands. Fish and other aquatic animals clearly do not lack opportunities to add water to their meals; hence most aquatic animals are devoid of "true" salivary glands. However, some form of lubrication is still necessary to assist swallowing even in water, and this is provided by mucous glands along the tongue and roof of mouth (Mucous secretion is present in all animals.)
And that's your weird fish fact of the day.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Jul 13, 2008 -
Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Experiments
July 12, 2008
The latest outbreak of “mankini”
I will definitely not be adopting this look on the beach.
Read the full story here.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jul 12, 2008 -
Comments (5)
Category: Celebrities, Couples, Fashion, Sexuality, Gender, Sex Symbols
eden ahbez and Nat King Cole and “Nature Boy”
I love the singing and musicianship and general personal integrity of Nat King Cole. Hearing him immediately brings me back to my childhood in the late 1950's, the height of Cole's popularity.Of course, like many popstars of the 1950's, Cole's star was eclipsed with the rise of rock 'n' roll, and the hippies, in the 1960's.
But curiously enough, Cole played a tiny self-defeating part in that very movement, with his song "Nature Boy."
The tale behind that song involves one of the first proto-hippies--a beatnik, I suppose--named eden ahbez.
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Ahbez is one of the twentieth century's bonafide wonderful weirdos, but pretty much forgotten these days.
Why not listen to "Nature Boy" to commemorate ahbez and King?
You might even want to pick up one of ahbez's CD's!
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jul 12, 2008 -
Comments (1)
Category: Art, Decades, 1950s, 1960s, Eccentrics, History, Historical Figure, Music, Weird Names
Follies of the Mad Men #2
[From The Saturday Evening Post for December 16, 1967]
Whenever you put a giant woman in a skirt next to normal-sized people, the inevitable first thought engendered in the viewer is, "Can I see up her dress?" In this instance, the second thought is: "Is she going to pick up that car and use it as a marital aid?"
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jul 12, 2008 -
Comments (10)
Category: Business, Advertising, Giant People in Ads, Products, Fashion, Obsessions, Fetishes, Sexuality, Cars
Chuck’s Hand-Picked Overnight Weird News for Saturday
Your Daily Jury Duty[no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
Scott Knapke, 37, Colerain Towship, Ohio, charged with DUI on a bicycle. Cincinnati Enquirer
Comments 'scott_knapke'
More Things To Worry About on Saturday
The Galo D'Ouro restaurant in Britain stepped up to the fine line between revenue and disabilities law by barring a Huntington's disease customer who was grossing out diners by unavoidably spitting food . . . . . A Mormon is publishing a 2009 beefcake calendar of hunky, returning missionaries, and non-hunky elders don't like that a bit . . . . . The pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name [sic] (Middlesboro, Ky.) was arrested as part of a ring trafficking in venomous snakes . . . . . A 30-yr-old teacher in Buffalo, N.Y., was charged not only with the usual things regarding the 14-yr-old boy she was with, but also with joining him in a suicide pact . . . . . A French gov't agency denied the citizenship application of a Moroccan woman for "insufficient assimilation," i.e., being way too submissive to her French husband.
Comments 'worry_080712'
Posted By: Chuck - Sat Jul 12, 2008 -
Comments (0)
Category:
July 11, 2008
Sperm from teeth?
New Scientist reports that Brazilian researchers are attempting to help infertile men by finding a way to turn teeth cells into sperm cells via mouse testicles:Irina Kerkis of the Butantan Institute in São Paulo and her colleagues injected stem cells from the dental pulp of human teeth into the testes of live mice. The cells seemed to migrate to the tubules where sperm usually mature and differentiate into cells resembling human sperm.
Just one problem: "some of the human cells fused with mouse cells." Well, at least the kids would be a shoo-in for the Mouseketeers.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jul 11, 2008 -
Comments (1)
Category: Science
Have you been abducted by aliens?
Take this simple test to find out:- Do you ever wake up paralyzed with a sense of a strange person or presence or something else in the room?
- Have you ever experienced a period of lost time -- an hour or more -- for which you could not remember what you were doing or where you had been?
- Have you ever felt that you had been flying through the air although you didn't know why or how?
- Have you ever seen unusual lights or balls of light in a room without knowing what was causing them?
- Have you ever found puzzling scars on your body and neither you nor anyone else could remember how you received them or where you got them?
Three out of five indicates a 60% probability of alien abduction. Four out of five is a 90% probability. Scored five out of five? You're an alien abductee! My score was 0 out of 5. The aliens don't like me. :down:
The test comes from a 1993 survey conducted by sociologist Ted Goertzel, who found that 3.7% of his respondents qualified as "abductees." Goertzel was careful to note that he wasn't saying these people really were abductees. Instead he noted that the survey seemed to be "measuring a consistent phenomenon of some kind, but it tells us nothing about what it is that the scale is measuring."
But this distinction was totally glossed over by the National Enquirer who picked up on the survey and popularized it as an Alien Abduction Test. Extrapolating from the 3.7% response number, they concluded that 8 million Americans were alien abductees.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jul 11, 2008 -
Comments (2)
Category: Paranormal, Psychology
Talkin’ ‘bout My Degeneration
BOOMERS DEFIANTLY PROCLAIM: "WE'RE DRUG-ADDLED, MUSIC-DOMINATING, FREE-LOVE GROOVIES TILL THE GRAVE!""Geezers still get lucky, sez study"
"You go, granny!
"Today's 70-year-olds are having more and better sex than oldsters of the past, new research in the British Medical Journal shows. Women are especially satisfied...."
Report: Illegal drug use up for boomers
"Some moms and dads might want to take a lesson from their kids: Just say no.
"The government reported Thursday that 4.4 percent of baby boomers ages 50 to 59 indicated that they had used illicit drugs in the past month...."
Old bands never really die
"Your favorite ’90s band broke up? Fear not, they’ll be back.
"Seventies and ’80s bands, too. And if not this year, maybe next.
"This summer’s concert calendar boasts tours by reunited rockers and relics — Stone Temple Pilots (split in 2003) and New Kids on the Block (split in 1994) — and recently re-energized bands such as the B-52’s, the Black Crowes, Motley Crue and Yes. A round of reunion shows filled last summer’s slate as well, with the Police, Led Zeppelin, Genesis and Van Halen playing their time-tested hits for fans...."
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 11, 2008 -
Comments (1)
Category: Customs, Death, Drugs, Fashion, History, Music, Sexuality
Gumby Was Never Like This!
My pal Liz Hand just turned me on to the twisted stop-motion films of PES. The one below sent me into fits of laughter.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 11, 2008 -
Comments (3)
Category: Art, Domestic, Movies, Cartoons, Pets, Cats, Sexuality
Nick Millard, Auteur
The history of the cinema is littered with kooks, talented and untalented. One such was Nick Millard. I will leave it to the reader to decide which category Millard falls in. But let me tell you in advance that his serial killer is an obese woman named Fat Ethel.Read a very entertaining synopsis of some of Millard's oevure, by one Joseph A. Ziemba, at his Bleeding Skull blog.
Then experience the majesty of Millard's cinematic style below.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 11, 2008 -
Comments (1)
Category: Art, Crime, Stupid Criminals, Death, Domestic, Eccentrics, Guns, Hollywood, Horror, Movies, Sexuality, ShowBiz
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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 books such as Elephants on Acid. 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. Chuck Shepherd Chuck is the purveyor of News of the Weird, the syndicated column which for decades has set the gold-standard for reporting on oddities and the bizarre. Our banner was drawn by the legendary underground cartoonist Rick Altergott. Contact Us |
