Weird Universe Archive

May 2016

May 22, 2016

Now you can lick your cat

The inventors of the Licki Brush say, "We have designed LICKI brush to bring you and your cat closer. By using LICKI with your cat on a regular basis, you'll develop a more intimate and bonded relationship, much like a mama cat bonds with her young."

As of May 22, on Kickstarter they're one-third of the way to successfully funding the manufacture of this thing.



Posted By: Alex - Sun May 22, 2016 - Comments (4)
Category: Inventions, Cats

That Sly Old Gentleman from Featherbed Lane



Charming song about elderly neighborhood Peeping Tom.

Posted By: Paul - Sun May 22, 2016 - Comments (1)
Category: Eccentrics, Myths and Fairytales, 1930s

May 21, 2016

Brits ban 666 from license plates

In 1990, the British banned the devil from their roads. But over in Russia, where his Satanic influence continued to reign unchecked, a Dodge Viper with the license plate '666' mysteriously burst into flames in 2009.

Arizona Republic - May 3, 1991





Bangor Daily News - Feb 5, 1990

Posted By: Alex - Sat May 21, 2016 - Comments (6)
Category: 1990s, Cars

The Anatomical Venus

image

This new book about the "Anatomical Venus" looks to be fascinatingly weird. Lots more photos at the link.





Posted By: Paul - Sat May 21, 2016 - Comments (2)
Category: Art, Body, Surgery, Women, Eighteenth Century

May 20, 2016

AbsorbPlate

It's a plate that makes food healthier by soaking up excess calories, according to its creators (the Thai Health Promotion Foundation and BBDO Bangkok):

Hundreds of tiny holes inspired by the texture of sponge make AbsorbPlate able to separate excess oil from food before people eat it. The plate can reduce up to 7 ml of grease or approximately 30 calories per plate. The plates were designed to be easy to wash. In order to eat healthier, all they need to do is just continue their regular eating behaviour on our plate.

I have an idea that would work even better — a smaller plate.


Posted By: Alex - Fri May 20, 2016 - Comments (8)
Category: Food, Health, Inventions

Mystery Gadget 37

image

Why? What for? The answer is here.

Posted By: Paul - Fri May 20, 2016 - Comments (7)
Category: Technology, 1960s, Head

May 19, 2016

Allergic to Money

A few cases from the historical record of people who were allergic to money.

The obligatory joke in this situation: "I'm not allergic to money, but it's allergic to me."

Medford Mail Tribune - Mar 13, 1953



Arizona Republic - Aug 19, 1954



The Wilmington News Journal - Jan 8, 1963

Posted By: Alex - Thu May 19, 2016 - Comments (2)
Category: Health, Money

May 18, 2016

Let Children Vote

Yesterday I posted about a proposal to disenfranchise the elderly. Here's a similar idea — a scheme to reduce the political power of grey hairs — but it goes about it in a different way. Instead of taking away the vote from the elderly, you give the vote to children. Their new political power would presumably balance out the influence of seniors, shifting state policy in new directions.

This idea has been repeatedly advocated by Paul E. Peterson, professor of government at Harvard. He's argued for the idea in the journal Daedalus (Fall 1992), The Brookings Review (Winter 1993), and Education Next (Jan 2011).

The way it would work, in practice: "parents exercise the vote on behalf of their children... parents be given the option to assign the right to their child whenever they think he or she is capable of casting it on their own. That right, once given, can never be taken back."

The details that remain to be worked out: "Which parent gets the vote? What is to be done with election-day newborns? What proof of parentage is required?"

Peterson was not, by any means, the first to come up with the idea of letting children vote. Philippe van Parijs gives a brief history of the children's suffrage movement in his book Just Democracy:

It has been repeatedly discussed for over a century, especially in France, and mostly with pro-natalist motivations. The earliest proposal of this sort seems to have been made, shortly after Prussia's victory over France, by a certain Henri Lasserre, 'the universally known historian of Notre-Dame de Lourdes'. In his proposal, every French citizen, whatever his or her age or gender, is given one vote, with the (male) head of each family exercising this right to vote on behalf of his wife and each of his children. The proposal was hardly noticed, however, except by the philosopher Gabriel de Tarde, who took it over enthusiastically, as a way of enforcing a concern for the interests of younger and unborn generations.

Image source: The Brookings Review (Winter 1993)

Posted By: Alex - Wed May 18, 2016 - Comments (11)
Category: Politics, Reformers, Do-gooders, Agitators and SJWs, Children

Elvis and the Hollywood Vice Squad

I wonder what the Hollywood Vice Squad of 1957 would make of many a modern pop music show?

image

Original text here.

image

Original text here.

image

Original text here.

Posted By: Paul - Wed May 18, 2016 - Comments (5)
Category: Celebrities, Censorship, Bluenoses, Taboos, Prohibitions and Other Cultural No-No’s, 1950s, Dance

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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.

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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.

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