Category:
Natural Resources

Wormy Chestnut

A rare case of something that is damaged being more valuable than the undamaged item.



Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 19, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Death, Domestic, Freaks, Oddities, Quirks of Nature, Viruses, Germs and Other Sources of Infection, Natural Resources

The Snow Beauty of Yakutia

Part of our series on odd beauty contests.

The first (?) contest was apparently held in 2017.

Read about it here.



What appears to be the home page has lots of pix and even videos of the 2018 contest. But I cannot find reference to competitions for 2019 or 2020.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 06, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Ethnic Groupings, Nature, Natural Resources, Russia

Oyster Flatulence

I didn't even realize that oysters produced flatulence, but I guess this is now something new to worry about.

A study published in the Scientific Reports journal shows that clams, mussels and oysters produce one-tenth of methane and nitrous oxide gases in the Baltic Sea as a result of digestion. Therefore, researchers have warned that shellfish “may play an important but overlooked role in regulating greenhouse gas production”.


More info: euractiv.com
Original study: nature.com

Posted By: Alex - Wed Oct 18, 2017 - Comments (6)
Category: Nature, Natural Resources

Navassa Island:  Guano Capital of the USA




Wikipedia page.

Navassa Island was claimed for the United States on September 19, 1857, by Peter Duncan, an American sea captain, under the Guano Islands Act of 1856, for the rich guano deposits found on the island, and for not being within the lawful jurisdiction of any other government, nor occupied by another government's citizens.




Article from 2012 here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 02, 2017 - Comments (0)
Category: Business, Excrement, Natural Resources, Nineteenth Century

The Beachcombers



The longest-running English-language show on Canadian TV looks just awful. How could it be otherwise, with this premise, as detailed in their Wikipedia entry.

The Beachcombers followed the life of Nick Adonidas (Bruno Gerussi), a Greek-Canadian log salvager in British Columbia who earned a living travelling the coastline northwest of Vancouver with his partner Jesse Jim (Pat John) aboard their logging tug Persephone tracking down logs that had broken away from barges and logging booms. Their chief business competitor is Relic (Robert Clothier) (whose actual name is Stafford T. Phillips), a somewhat unsavoury person who will occasionally go to great lengths to steal business (and logs) away from Nick. The series also focused on a supporting cast of characters in Nick's hometown of Gibsons, often centering on a café, Molly's Reach, run by Molly (Rae Brown), a mother figure to virtually all the characters in the series (including Relic). Molly had two grandchildren living with her, Hughie (Bob Park) and his younger sister Margaret played by Nancy Chapple in the first season then by Juliet Randall from the second season onward.


There are some full episodes on YouTube if anyone is brave enough to watch. Maybe a Canadian WU-vie will fill us in!

Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 06, 2017 - Comments (6)
Category: Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Nature, Natural Resources, 1970s

Big Role for Rock



Here's my question: who the hell ever first thunk up this elaborate, non-intuitive processing of gypsum, a rock out of the ground? The ingenuity of mankind and our genius ancestors is awesome and baffling.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 11, 2015 - Comments (4)
Category: Technology, Industry, Factories and Manufacturing, 1950s, Natural Resources

The Brown Line

image
The number 2 bus runs on number 2 so I figure that's the brown line.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Mar 16, 2015 - Comments (9)
Category: Garbage, Trash, Waste and Other Detritus, Mass Transit, Utilities and Power Generation, Excrement, Natural Resources, Bus

Urine-tricity

image
Lighting up the restroom with power produced from urine deposited therein, brilliant!

Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 07, 2015 - Comments (1)
Category: Bathrooms, Body Fluids, Natural Resources, Power Generation

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Who We Are
Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

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.

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