Category:
Religion

Kosher Pet Food

This is not a religious concern that had previously appeared on my radar.

Read the whole article here.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Jul 24, 2022 - Comments (3)
Category: Food, Pets, Religion

Ella Fitzgerald, “Get Thee Behind Me Satan”

This is a very weird song. Is Satan the boyfriend? I'm not sure. Gospel music of course deals with this subject matter all the time, but to the tune of a wistful ballad?






Get Thee Behind Me Satan Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Get thee behind me, Satan
I want to resist
But the moon is low and I can't say "No"
Get thee behind me

Get thee behind me, Satan
I mustn't be kissed
But the moon is low and I may let go
Get thee behind me

[Bridge]
Someone I'm mad about
Is waiting in the night for me
Someone that I mustn't see
Satan, get thee behind me

[Verse 2]
He promised to wait
But I won't appear and he may come here
Satan, he's at my gate
Get thee behind me
Stay where you are, it's too late

[Instrumental Break]

[Verse 3]
Satan, get thee behind me
He promised to wait
But I won't appear and he may come here
Satan, he's at my gate
Get thee behind me
Stay where you are, it's too late

[Outro]
It's too late
It's too late

Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 07, 2022 - Comments (6)
Category: Music, Religion, Love & Romance

Unintended consequence of hymn singing

Weird Fact: hymn singing can cause mink to kill and eat their young.

Vancouver Sun - Dec 8, 1959

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jun 30, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Animals, Religion, 1950s

The Good Book Cookbook

Not a lot of nouvelle or fusion or fast-food cuisine in this volume. (Read it here.)

I did a search for "locusts" within the book, but no recipes, with honey or otherwise. However, you can source them here, at Biblical Protein.









Posted By: Paul - Wed Jun 22, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Food, Nutrition, Cookbooks, Religion, 1980s

Crepitus, the God of Flatulence

Crepitus was allegedly the Roman god of flatulence. He was usually depicted as a young child farting.

However, he's only allegedly so because there's controversy about whether the Romans recognized such a god, or whether Crepitus was the creation of early Christians trying to satirize pagan beliefs. According to Wikipedia, there are references to Crepitus in ancient texts, but only in Christian works, not pagan ones.

image source: POOP Project

Posted By: Alex - Wed Jun 08, 2022 - Comments (4)
Category: Religion, Flatulence, Ancient Times

“The Largest Cross in the Western Hemisphere”

Another oddity that I encountered on my recent cross-country road trip was the "largest cross in the western hemisphere." It's located in Groom, Texas, just a few miles down the road from the Devil's Rope Museum (which I posted about yesterday).

It was built in 1995 by Steve Thomas, a structural engineer, after he grew tired of being "faced with huge billboards along I-40 advertising XXX pornography locations." He wanted to offer the public something more wholesome instead.



The cross stands 190 feet tall, but as you approach it along the highway it looks disappointingly small because it's dwarfed by windmills in the fields around it. However, once you get right up beside it, it seems pretty big.

Referring to the cross as the largest in the western hemisphere, begs the question of where the largest cross is. According to Wikipedia, it's in Spain and is 500 feet tall.

However, more Internet research reveals that the cross in Groom isn't actually the largest in the western hemisphere, even though it's still being advertised as such (according to the pamphlet I got — see below). It was the tallest when it was built, but there are now two taller crosses in America — one in Illinois (198-feet tall) and another in Missouri (218-feet tall).



The cross is surrounded by "life-size bronze sculptures depicting the steps of Jesus to the Cross." And to the side of the cross is a life-size depiction of Calvary, where Jesus was crucified alongside two thieves.

The depiction of Calvary stands quite close to the highway. You can see the trucks and cars going by in the background. It gives the odd impression of three people being crucified along the I-40.



Overall, given that the giant cross was directly off the highway and very easy to get to, I'd recommend it as being interesting enough to visit, if you happen to be doing a roadtrip along the I-40.







Posted By: Alex - Mon Jun 06, 2022 - Comments (2)
Category: Religion, Landmarks, Sightseeing

The Prayer

A concept by Diemut Strebe. “The Prayer” is probably the first robot that speaks and sings to God, all Gods. A rough design (inspired to a machine produced by Japanese scientists that replicates the human vocal tract) is combined with a cutting edge neural language model, fine tuned on thousands of prayers and religious books from all over the world. The prayer generates original prayers vocally articulated by Amazon Polly's Kendra voice, and sings religious lyrics to the Divine.

Text by Enrico Santus. More info: Diemut Strebe



Diemut Strebe has made a previous appearance on WU:

Artist Diemut Strebe offered his 3-D-printed re-creation of the famous ear of Vincent van Gogh for display in June and July in a museum in Karlsruhe, Germany--having built it partially with genes from a great-great-grandson/nephew of van Gogh--and in the same shape, based on computer imaging technology. (Van Gogh reputedly cut off the ear, himself, in 1888 during a psychotic episode.) Visitors can also speak into the ear and listen to sounds it receives. [Wall Street Journal, 6-4-2014]

Posted By: Alex - Wed May 25, 2022 - Comments (5)
Category: Music, Religion, Technology, AI, Robots and Other Automatons

Inception of the Golden Lotus Temple of the Self-Realization



Still operating.

Women in togas at dedication of Golden Lotus Temple of the Self-Realization Fellowship Church in Los Angeles, Calif., 1950


Photo source.

Posted By: Paul - Tue May 24, 2022 - Comments (2)
Category: Fashion, Religion, 1950s

How the Virgin Mary got pregnant

According to ancient Christian tradition, it was through her ear. Details from JohnSanidopoulos.com:

In both Eastern and Western art of the Annunciation, we often find that the trajectory of the descent of the Holy Spirit is not to the womb of the Virgin Mary, but to her ear. In complete deference to her virginity, the conception had nothing to do whatever with her female sexual organs, which remained forever intact. She did not conceive through her womb, but through her ear (conceptio per aurem).

Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 30, 2022 - Comments (4)
Category: Religion, Pregnancy

Page 4 of 29 pages ‹ First  < 2 3 4 5 6 >  Last ›




weird universe thumbnail
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.

Contact Us
Monthly Archives
November 2024 •  October 2024 •  September 2024 •  August 2024 •  July 2024 •  June 2024 •  May 2024 •  April 2024 •  March 2024 •  February 2024 •  January 2024

December 2023 •  November 2023 •  October 2023 •  September 2023 •  August 2023 •  July 2023 •  June 2023 •  May 2023 •  April 2023 •  March 2023 •  February 2023 •  January 2023

December 2022 •  November 2022 •  October 2022 •  September 2022 •  August 2022 •  July 2022 •  June 2022 •  May 2022 •  April 2022 •  March 2022 •  February 2022 •  January 2022

December 2021 •  November 2021 •  October 2021 •  September 2021 •  August 2021 •  July 2021 •  June 2021 •  May 2021 •  April 2021 •  March 2021 •  February 2021 •  January 2021

December 2020 •  November 2020 •  October 2020 •  September 2020 •  August 2020 •  July 2020 •  June 2020 •  May 2020 •  April 2020 •  March 2020 •  February 2020 •  January 2020

December 2019 •  November 2019 •  October 2019 •  September 2019 •  August 2019 •  July 2019 •  June 2019 •  May 2019 •  April 2019 •  March 2019 •  February 2019 •  January 2019

December 2018 •  November 2018 •  October 2018 •  September 2018 •  August 2018 •  July 2018 •  June 2018 •  May 2018 •  April 2018 •  March 2018 •  February 2018 •  January 2018

December 2017 •  November 2017 •  October 2017 •  September 2017 •  August 2017 •  July 2017 •  June 2017 •  May 2017 •  April 2017 •  March 2017 •  February 2017 •  January 2017

December 2016 •  November 2016 •  October 2016 •  September 2016 •  August 2016 •  July 2016 •  June 2016 •  May 2016 •  April 2016 •  March 2016 •  February 2016 •  January 2016

December 2015 •  November 2015 •  October 2015 •  September 2015 •  August 2015 •  July 2015 •  June 2015 •  May 2015 •  April 2015 •  March 2015 •  February 2015 •  January 2015

December 2014 •  November 2014 •  October 2014 •  September 2014 •  August 2014 •  July 2014 •  June 2014 •  May 2014 •  April 2014 •  March 2014 •  February 2014 •  January 2014

December 2013 •  November 2013 •  October 2013 •  September 2013 •  August 2013 •  July 2013 •  June 2013 •  May 2013 •  April 2013 •  March 2013 •  February 2013 •  January 2013

December 2012 •  November 2012 •  October 2012 •  September 2012 •  August 2012 •  July 2012 •  June 2012 •  May 2012 •  April 2012 •  March 2012 •  February 2012 •  January 2012

December 2011 •  November 2011 •  October 2011 •  September 2011 •  August 2011 •  July 2011 •  June 2011 •  May 2011 •  April 2011 •  March 2011 •  February 2011 •  January 2011

December 2010 •  November 2010 •  October 2010 •  September 2010 •  August 2010 •  July 2010 •  June 2010 •  May 2010 •  April 2010 •  March 2010 •  February 2010 •  January 2010

December 2009 •  November 2009 •  October 2009 •  September 2009 •  August 2009 •  July 2009 •  June 2009 •  May 2009 •  April 2009 •  March 2009 •  February 2009 •  January 2009

December 2008 •  November 2008 •  October 2008 •  September 2008 •  August 2008 •  July 2008 •