March 2020
March 16, 2020
New car smell perfume
"Now captured in a bottle, the new car fragrance. Savour the smell of success." From Autotrader. £175 for a 1.7 oz bottle.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Mar 16, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Cars, Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents
A Catalog of Chindogu
Visit here for many more.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Mar 16, 2020 -
Comments (5)
Category: Chindogu
March 15, 2020
The use of blood to make concrete
In 1980, Charles Laleman of France received a US patent (No. 4,203,674) for a technique for making concrete by mixing together cement with blood. His patent described a variety of different recipes one could use to create this blood concrete. For instance:
A light colloidal concrete is prepared by using:
a commercially available cement (cement CPA 400), a silico-calcareous sand graded no higher than 0.8 mm (the cement/sand mass ratio being equal to 1), whole blood powder of animal origin, a colloid, and mixing water in variable proportions.
The various constituents are mixed by means of a mixer working between 100 and 600 r.p.m.
The advantage of using blood, Laleman argued, was that the oxygen in it produced a lighter concrete.
Curiously, Laleman acknowledged that the idea of using blood to make concrete wasn't in any way new. He cited a variety of earlier patents, such as US patent 1,020,325 from 1912 which described mixing blood into concrete. And, in fact, the technique of using blood to make concrete was even practiced by the ancient Romans.
What made Laleman's technique unique (and therefore patentable) was apparently that he used it specifically to lighten the concrete, rather than to color it or to make it more porous. That seems like a rather fine distinction to me, but it was enough to earn him a patent.
Laleman's list of earlier patents includes another oddity. He refers to US Patent No. 3,536,507 (from 1970) which describes making concrete by combining cement with "an admixture which is derived from the fermentation liquor resulting from the aerobic fermentation of liquid carbohydrates, e.g., molasses from beet or cane sugar, corn, wheat or wood pulp." That sounds like a fancy way of saying they were mixing cement with beer.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 15, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Engineering and Construction, Inventions, Patents, 1980s, Blood
When the Stars Came Dreaming
Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 15, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Ethnic Groupings, Nature, Supernatural, Occult, Paranormal, Cartoons, Stop-motion Animation, 1990s
March 14, 2020
Coca-Cola Naughty Nun Belt Buckle
The Coca-Cola Company released this bronze, cigar-cutting belt buckle as a promotional item for the 1915 Trans-Pan Exposition in San Francisco. This was evidently before the company had begun cultivating its wholesome image.There must have been quite a few of these buckles created, because you can find a number of them for sale on auction sites (such as here, here, and here). They range in price from $48 to $125.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 14, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Kitsch and Collectibles, Nuns, Soda, Pop, Soft Drinks and other Non-Alcoholic Beverages, 1910s
Cosmic Guinea Pig
Posted By: Paul - Sat Mar 14, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Anthropomorphism, Humor, Philosophy
March 13, 2020
Anti-Fut-Swet
It "Hardens the feet".
Chattanooga Daily Times - June 11, 1898
Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 13, 2020 -
Comments (5)
Category: Advertising, Nineteenth Century, Feet
Johanna Went
Let us know when you bail.
Halfway through 1984’s Knife Boxing, Johanna Went interrupts her incessant frenzied bopping to thrust her hands into a crudely made body part—half-buttocks, half-vagina—suspended from the roof of Club Lingerie.1 A vicious viscous excremental substance seeps down her arm. She brings her face close and sucks the stuff into her mouth before hauling out a giant goo-covered tampon that she aggressively flings at the audience. Some cringe, others laugh. Quickly she pulls on a costume, a huge mask-headed apron covered in sex doll heads, all the while screaming her unique tongue, a babble from Hell channeled through Lolita-cum-Medea. Screeching tape loops accompany her, along with a blaring saxophone and a loud percussive racket emanating from a woman drumming on found objects.2 A monstrous vagina appears stage right. Went extracts more tampons, heaving each into the mesmerized mosh pit. Completely at one with her, the audience starts hurling these back in a game of volleyball gone mad. After all, this show was held to coincide with the Los Angeles Olympics. Much art programming accompanied that event, but Went was not part of the roster. Instead, she held her own celebration of sports, on the stage of a punk club, flanked by headless stockinette figures replete with genitalia parodying the elegant cast metal kouroi made by Robert Graham to decorate the official Olympic stadiums.
Source of quote, long essay.
Another essay on the creator, here.
Her Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 13, 2020 -
Comments (9)
Category: Ambiguity, Uncertainty and Deliberate Obscurity, Antisocial Activities, Armageddon and Apocalypses, Bad Habits, Neuroses and Psychoses, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Music, Avant Garde, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, Twentieth Century
March 12, 2020
Sliced Mayonnaise
We recently reported that a Japanese company was selling a mayonnaise-flavored ice cream bar. Now more mayonnaise news has arrived from Japan.The Japanese company Bourbon (which, despite its name, is not involved in the alcohol industry) has introduced sliced mayonnaise, describing it as a “sheet-like condiment.” It's advertised as a time-saver for those wanting to prepare a quick sandwich.
More info: Sora News
Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 12, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Food, Mayonnaise
Follies of the Madmen #469
Why the dog?
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Mar 12, 2020 -
Comments (6)
Category: Business, Advertising, Fashion, Dogs, 1960s
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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 |
