Weird Universe Archive

July 2022

July 31, 2022

Lavaforming

Icelandic architect Arnhildur Palmadottir has proposed creating buildings (and entire cities) out of lava. From her website:

Lava flow has shaped the landscape for billions of years, but in human times lava has been a destructive force. Basaltic lava flows can contain enough building materials for the foundations of an entire city that would rise in a few weeks. The Lavaforming project is a story of a world that has recognised that traditional building materials such as concrete and steel that have huge environmental impact are no longer usable to build the cities that are needed.

The basic idea is to create trenches and forms to direct the flow of the lava. Then just wait for the volcano to erupt and hopefully flow in the intended way.

More info: Surfaces Reporter





Update: Paul tells me that the Santa Maria Church in Randazzo, Sicily was built with black lava stones.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jul 31, 2022 - Comments (2)
Category: Architecture

Naeviology

Naeviology is divination by bodily moles.





Learn about this science at this book link, along with many other occult practices.



Posted By: Paul - Sun Jul 31, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Body, Fate, Predetermination and Inevitability, Predictions, Supernatural, Occult, Paranormal, Nineteenth Century

July 30, 2022

Courting Stick

The 'courting stick' was a device that allowed young couples, in puritan New England, to talk in private while being chaperoned in the family home. More info: New England Folklore

image source: NY Public Library



The Trukese people of Micronesia also had a courting stick (or 'love stick'), though its use differed from the New England version. According to the Smithsonian:

The Trukese allow sexual experimentation among young people, provided it is kept discreet. To arrange for an evening rendezvous, a young man used to insert a 'love stick' through the thatch of the hut where a young girl slept. The girl recognized the suitor by the carving on the stick and then either pushed the stick out to signal 'go away,' wiggled it to indicate 'come back later,' or drew it inside to signify 'come right in.'

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jul 30, 2022 - Comments (3)
Category: Love & Romance

July 29, 2022

Bingo claim denied

Verdev said she suffered nearly $90,000 in injuries when a 300-pound board fell off the stage at a bingo night in 1990. She also claimed that she found herself sexually attracted to women and experienced spontaneous orgasms, sometimes in clusters.

The judge dismissed her case, and when she appealed it was again dismissed. You can read the appeal ruling here.

The Streator Times - Apr 19, 1996



Posted By: Alex - Fri Jul 29, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category:

Sexy TV Showering

Surprised this passed the censorship of the times, as it's just one step away from having the (presumed, but never explicitly stated) husband and wife sharing the same shower stall.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 29, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Food, Hygiene, Sexuality, Public Indecency, Husbands, Wives, 1970s

July 28, 2022

Pyrophobia

In 1964, the pro-smoking, German scientist Helmuth Aschenbrenner argued that anti-smokers were suffering from 'pyrophobia,' or fear of fire. Specifically, they were suffering from 'fear of the 'big fire' or atom bomb."

Details from Robert Proctor in The Nazi War on Cancer (1997):

After the war, Helmuth Aschenbrenner continued on as secretary general of the International Association for Scientific Tobacco Research. In the March 1964 issue of the London journal World Tobacco, the Bremen tobacco apologist is cited suggesting that "before reports on smoking and health are taken seriously [the reference is to the 1964 U.S. surgeon general's report], those making the reports should have psychiatric certification that they are not suffering from pyrophobia (fear of fire)." Aschenbrenner is taken to have proven that "tobacco antagonism often springs from a morbid (and often unconscious) pyrophobia—a phenomenon whose many manifestations include suppressed fear of the 'big fire' or atom bomb." See "International Perspective on Smoking and Health," World Tobaco, March 1964, pp. 19-20.


On a somewhat unrelated note, here's a news item from 1981 about a young woman who was also suffering from fear of the 'big fire'.

Vancouver Sun - June 22, 1981

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 28, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Bad Habits, Neuroses and Psychoses, Smoking and Tobacco

Follies of the Madmen #538

Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 28, 2022 - Comments (3)
Category: Hygiene, Advertising, Surrealism, 1950s

July 27, 2022

The woman who kissed her goldfish

Mrs. George Wolfe must have been horrified by the goldfish-swallowing fad.

Waterloo Courier - Mar 5, 1944



Des Moines Tribune - Feb 21, 1944

Posted By: Alex - Wed Jul 27, 2022 - Comments (2)
Category: Fish, 1940s

Spanking Toy

Although cats are featured in the drawing, the inventor wants you to know the figures may be generalized to other animals or humans.

The patent is here.



Posted By: Paul - Wed Jul 27, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Inventions, Patents, Toys, Sadism, Cruelty, Punishment, and Torture, 1900s

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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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