Miss U.S. Television

The Miss America pageant has been conducted since 1921, but it's only been televised since 1954. Before then, it briefly had competition when the Miss U.S. Television contest, conducted by the DuMont Television Network, aired in 1950. Watch the full pageant at the internet archive, or a version edited for length below. It has a strange opening segment in which the contestants introduce themselves, framed by a fake TV set. Then they go on to their talent performances, some of which were truly awful. The winner was a young Edie Adams.


According to wikipedia, the Miss U.S. Television contest only took place once, but there must have been subsequent pageants that used the same title, since once can find women being crowned Miss U.S. Television in later years, such as Phyllis Maygers (below), who won the title in 1952.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 28, 2012 - Comments (5)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Television, 1950s

Test Tube Babies

Intrigued by the trailer?

Watch the whole film below!

Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 28, 2012 - Comments (3)
Category: Family, Babies and Toddlers, Movies, Sexuality, 1940s, Pregnancy

Mystery Gadget 13

What could these masks be for? Find out here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Oct 27, 2012 - Comments (7)
Category: Technology, 1940s

Little and Large

Samantha Fox dances with Chris Greener. The picture must have been taken sometime in the 1980s.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Oct 27, 2012 - Comments (9)
Category: 1980s, Dance

Engage The Tractor Beam!!

Star Trek fans rejoice. A small scale demonstration moved a particle toward the tractor beam when two scientists focused a pair of Bessel beams at it. I'm already in over my head, so don't look for any further explanation here. But I can post a great graphic.



Large scale tractor beams of this type would probably destroy the object trying to be moved. Here's the link to the abstract at phys.org:

http://phys.org/news/2012-10-physics-duo-tractor-dual-bessel.html

Once a large scale tractor beam has been developed, what would you use it to do?

My first use would be to draw the moon closer, just to see if what "Bruce Almighty" predicted would happen.

Or to move the refrigerator to me, instead of me having to walk to it.

Posted By: gdanea - Fri Oct 26, 2012 - Comments (4)
Category: Experiments

Lifted by the Ears

A photo of a kindergarten teacher in China lifting one of her students by her ears has recently been doing the rounds online. The teacher, reportedly, has explained her actions by saying she and the student "were just having fun." Well, the smile on the teacher's face indicates she's having fun. I'm not so sure about the kid. [huffpost]

The photo immediately made me think of those photos of Lyndon Johnson lifting his two beagle pups by their ears, which caused an uproar back in 1964. LBJ also claimed the ear lifting was all fun and games. Just another reminder of how often weird news repeats itself.

Posted By: Alex - Fri Oct 26, 2012 - Comments (9)
Category: School, Children

Are You an Ascension Pioneer?

My question is, "Is anyone other than this lone ditzy woman part of this 'movement?'"

Her website.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Oct 26, 2012 - Comments (6)
Category: Fey, Twee, Whimsical, Naive and Sadsack, Frauds, Cons and Scams, New Age

Armageddon

Armageddon, The worlds strongest beer is now available in Scotland. At 65% alcohol it is more of a beer flavored whiskey. Will it get you drunk? Aye!

Posted By: Alex - Fri Oct 26, 2012 - Comments (8)
Category: Alcohol

International Fluffy Bunny Slipper Day

Today, October 26th, has been set aside to celebrate that rarest of creatures the Fluffy Bunny Slipper.

While the origins of this creature are lost in the annals of time we have learned that one of them (possibly the last one) has surfaced somewhere in the United States and is in, almost, daily contact with us here at WU central. While we're not sure, we suspect that this FBS is female and, if so, we can only hope that she will be fertile and procreate thereby pushing the species back a step farther from extension.

Some have wondered about the name, Fluffy Bunny Slipper, as it implies that we're speaking about a shoe but, please understand that this could not be farther from the truth. FBS is a direct and literal translation of a translation from a language so old as to predate that found on cuneiform filled clay tablets. It is difficult to put the creature's name into modern speech so, maybe, it is best to use our FBS's own words to describe her place and reason for being in the universe we share. Here, below, are her words:

Actually the Fluffy Bunny Slipper Fairy inserts lint into shoes and slippers throughout the world, It's a yearlong family operation, we collect the lint from our bellies and carefully insert them into the shoes slippers and other footwear. we are not responsible for other places. Those are the domains of creatures such as the junk jockey and the sock mime. Our family has a high death toll due to being stomped on, hence us being rabbits to replenish our numbers quickly in case of catastrophic athlete's foot outbreak. However October 26th is Fluffy Slipper Lint Day, so if you were to celebrate a special day that is the day you should celebrate us.

So, please join us WUvians in wishing our FBS all happiness and well being on this, "her" special day.

Posted By: Expat47 - Thu Oct 25, 2012 - Comments (6)
Category:

Second Shortest Man in the Air Force

This picture and caption ran in papers back in October 1951. It's not clear why it was considered newsworthy. It also left unanswered the question of who the shortest man in the Air Force was, if Sgt. Perkins was the second shortest.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 25, 2012 - Comments (10)
Category: Military, 1950s