Weird Universe Archive
October 2023
October 16, 2023
Follies of the Madmen #578
Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 16, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Horror, Advertising, Smoking and Tobacco, 1960s
October 15, 2023
Meat Power
"These youngsters have the stamina it takes. They're 'propelled' by Meat power from Swift!"
Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 15, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Food, Advertising, 1960s
Starship Africa
Your opinions solicited.The rest of the album, as a playlist, is here.
The Discogs page.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 15, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: Music, Space-age Bachelor Pad & Exotic, 1980s, Africa, Caribbean
October 14, 2023
Bob’s Marriage Repair Kit
Preacher Bob Harrington's guide to a successful marriage, released in 1974. Three years later he got divorced. Info from wikipedia:
Harrington's Ministry ended in 1977 at the height of his popularity, the result of an extramarital affair. He divorced his first wife and was married the second time to Zonnya, then the Executive Vice-president of his organization. The new couple moved to Clearwater, Florida, where Harrington became a successful motivational speaker for automobile dealers, multilevel marketing and real estate in the 1980s and 1990s. This marriage did not last, and in addition to the divorce he suffered bankruptcy.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Oct 14, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: Divorce, Marriage, 1970s
The Electric Clothing of Diana Dew
According to Lobenthal, Dew was an electrical engineer who flaunted a different hair color every day and created a miniature battery pack that attached to the belt of a dress to create blinking hearts and stars. “They’re hyperdelic transsensory experiences,” she said of her garments to Time Magazine in 1967, the same year The New Yorker wrote about her. (If your wired mini breaks down, “Please just take it to the nearest radio-TV repair shop,” Dew said.) Lobenthal writes that Dew’s tiny power source was eventually acquired by the U.S. military.
Her Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Oct 14, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Fashion, Technology, 1960s
October 13, 2023
Female mate avoidance behaviors in the European common frog
We posted recently about "misdirected amplexus," which is the phenomenon of male frogs attempting to mate with inappropriate objects (different species, fish, inanimate objects, etc.).Turns out that the weird frog sex behaviors don't end there. Male frogs, in their excitement, will occasionally form "mating balls" — "several male frogs cling to a single female – often killing her in the process."
Some German researchers have now found that female frogs, in turn, have developed defense strategies to protect themselves from over-excited males. They rotate to try to escape the male's grasp; they emit "release calls"; and if those strategies fail to work, they play dead:
to protect themselves against swarms of sexually aroused male frogs, the female frogs stiffly extend their arms and legs away from the body, keeping incredibly still until the male releases them from its grasp.
More info: "Drop dead! Female mate avoidance in an explosively breeding frog" – technologynetworks.com
(Thanks to Gerald Sacks)
Posted By: Alex - Fri Oct 13, 2023 -
Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Nature, Science, Sex
GI Joe Does “2001: A Space Odyssey”
Posted By: Paul - Fri Oct 13, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: Movies, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, Toys, 1970s
October 12, 2023
Accidentally dropped into shark-infested water
"Instead of arriving by staff car, or even helicopter, his favourite manner of inspecting a unit was to drop by parachute, arm at the salute, as he touched down."
However, this nearly ended in disaster recently when Bigeard, nearing 60, was inadvertently dropped into a shark infested sea while visiting troops in Madagascar. He broke an arm and was saved only when his faithful staff threw themselves into the seas after him.
However, this nearly ended in disaster recently when Bigeard, nearing 60, was inadvertently dropped into a shark infested sea while visiting troops in Madagascar. He broke an arm and was saved only when his faithful staff threw themselves into the seas after him.
More info about Marcel Bigeard: wikipedia
The book referenced in the clipping below is viewable on archive.org.
London Daily Telegraph - Nov 9, 1977
Marcel Bigeard. Image source: zone militaire
Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 12, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Accidents, Military, 1970s
The Language of Handwriting
You know the scene in old movies when the cops or some other authority figure calls in the handwriting expert? The expert examines the sample handwriting and confidently proclaims, "The writer was a sixty-five-year-old widow, who grew up in Romania, and has been a turkey farmer for the past three years." Well, now you too can become such an expert, by studying this volume at the Internet Archive.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 12, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: Experts and Authority Figures, Movies, Pseudoscience, 1950s
October 11, 2023
GiraffeNap
The GiraffeNap is "a nap box that proposes a 'standing sleep' style."It looks very similar to the upright Nap Boxes that we've previously posted about.
More info: GiraffeNap, Core77
Posted By: Alex - Wed Oct 11, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Inventions, Sleep and Dreams
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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 |
