Category:
War
War
Alternate History of VJ Day
If the history books had been written a little differently, the iconic shot of a woman getting plastered straight from the bottle might be gracing your "Greatest Generation" tributes.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 20, 2009 -
Comments (3)
Category: Holidays, War, 1940s, Women, Alcohol
I’m Back!
Hello Weird Universe readers. Some of you may remember back in May when I was posting weird things I found in old magazines, and maybe a few of you were wondering what happened to those posts. Being a college student, I had to go home over the summer, and my parents still don't have an internet connection (technically they have AOL, but that doesn't really count), so I had no way to post anything on Weird Universe for a few months. When I got back to Chicago, it took a while to get settled in, and I finally decided I should start posting again. I will try to post a few things a week from now on.I feel I should start with one of the most bizarre juxtapositions ever to appear, well, anywhere:
(from the April 1953 issue of Popular Science)
Posted By: Salamander Sam - Sat Oct 03, 2009 -
Comments (1)
Category: Exercise and Fitness, War, Advertising, 1950s
It Just Ain’t Unnatural!
But if we learnt war early on the path to humanity, we may have learnt laughter even earlier. Researchers from the University of Portsmouth analysed the sounds 22 young apes made when being tickled, and concluded that it is laughter. Dr Davila-Ross and her team looked for similar acoustic characteristics to human laughter in the young of several ape species, and found greater similarity in the sounds made by chimpanzees and bonobos (the species closest to humans genetically) than in that of more distantly related apes such as orangutans. The team concluded that laughter must have evolved some time before the major ape groups split apart, 18 million years ago (BBC News).
Finally, this last piece was going to be about gay penguin adoption, but that's already up, so instead I'd like to draw your attention to a
(Image from SPEC Productions, who collect and reprint some damn fine comics!)
Posted By: Dumbfounded - Mon Jun 08, 2009 -
Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Ethnic Groupings, Sexuality, War, Anthropology, Archaeology
Food in War and Peace
Two videos for D-Day Anniversary Weekend.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jun 07, 2009 -
Comments (1)
Category: Anniversary, Food, War, 1940s
Missile Dick Chicks Documentary
Visit here for more info.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jun 01, 2009 -
Comments (0)
Category: Humor, Parody, Pranks, War, Weapons, Performance Art, Documentaries
Four Jills in a Jeep
The embedded video at the bottom of this post consists of an entire feature-length film titled Four Jills in A Jeep. It recounts the based-on-truth activities of four female stars on the USO circuit during WWII. You are kindly invited to watch the whole thing if you wish: there's some good singing, and a few laughs amidst the corn. But if you only have three minutes to spare, please do this:1) Allow the whole video to load, with the sound off if you wish. It'll take a little bit, depending on your connection, natch.
2) Push the slider to the one-hour-and-nine-minutes mark. That's when our gals arrive at a North African village.
3) Wait patiently until, at the mark of 1:11:27, Kay Francis says "They brought us in on a camel caravan."
Watching this at home, we almost fell out of our seats, and had to replay the line several times to make sure we had heard right, laughing harder each time. I can guarantee you will not witness a funnier line-reading for a long time.
What makes it better is knowing something about Kay Francis's offscreen life. As we learn from this site:
A combination clotheshorse/workhorse, Kay Francis made 67 films from 1929 to 1946. Her life and career are a splurging record of indulgent consumption and extravagant dissipation....She usually drank a tumbler of gin for breakfast, got bored very easily, and slept around indiscriminately [with both men and women], racking up a high number of abortions... Kear and Rossman's book quotes liberally from Francis' diary, even using pull quotes from it on many of the pages, so that you feel their subject is talking directly to you. Kay repeatedly calls herself a bitch and a slut, proclaims her pooped-out boredom, and runs down her list of conquests. "Had merciless afternoon with Maurice (Chevalier)," she reports. "Four times in two hours." Her taste ran to talented directors too, like Goulding, Mamoulian, Lang, and Preminger. She could be generous: "Had to sleep with her because she wanted me," says one entry.
Four Jills in a Jeep
Posted By: Paul - Fri May 29, 2009 -
Comments (2)
Category: Movies, Music, Sexuality, Sex Symbols, War, 1940s
Escalation
Posted By: Paul - Thu May 07, 2009 -
Comments (5)
Category: Humor, Parody, Movies, Cartoons, War, 1960s
Buy Your Own Piece of Armageddon
Be the envy of every other survivalist and have your own converted cold-war Atlas-F missile silo home! You too can live in complete cold war safety and luxury. The converted missile launch site is marketed as a getaway, luxury home, and in my opinion is every survivalist’s dream. The property includes its own private runway, 2000 square foot luxury home above ground with master suite, a private airstrip, and a hangar/garage. Below ground, past the 2000 lb. blast doors and three feet of reinforced concrete built to withstand brutal missile assaults lies two additional stories of space in the converted control room where you will find two additional suites with luxury marble Jacuzzi baths and an escape hatch to your private hangar.
More in extended >>
Posted By: chris_cantwell - Wed May 06, 2009 -
Comments (4)
Category: Architecture, Armageddon and Apocalypses, Buildings and Other Structures, Destruction, Flight, Government, Military, Real Estate, Science, War, 1950s
Artificial Blitzkriegs
I came across a description of this experiment in an old newspaper (Reno Evening Gazette, Sep 8, 1941) and have never found any other references to it. The experiment was conducted by British psychologists who wanted to find out if "civilian populations can be made immune, through familiarity, to fear caused by air raid noises." The methodological problems with the design of the experiment are obvious, but it's interesting that it was conducted nevertheless. The details follow:The London experiment consisted of herding workers, children and bomb-shocked neurotics into underground vaults and there subjecting them to an 'artificial blitz bombing.'
Sound effects used in the test were recordings made during one of London's worst air raids last year, amplified to simulate the real thing. An Associated Press writer who witnessed the experiment reported:
"The sounds swelled in the dark vault. The guns kept banging. Then big bombs burst. The guns kept up. More bombs. Then the crackle of flames. Next clanging fire engines added their noise, the other sounds continuing."
According to the reporter, the subjects stood the test very well: 'No one was crying out. A flashlight swung around the room, revealing drawn faces and frightened eyes. But no one was swooning. The experimenters stepped up the amplification.'
The British psychologists responsible for the experiment were reported delighted with the results. They said it proved their theory that whole populations could be exposed to 'artificial blitzkriegs' and thus rendered immune to fear during air raids.
Sound effects used in the test were recordings made during one of London's worst air raids last year, amplified to simulate the real thing. An Associated Press writer who witnessed the experiment reported:
"The sounds swelled in the dark vault. The guns kept banging. Then big bombs burst. The guns kept up. More bombs. Then the crackle of flames. Next clanging fire engines added their noise, the other sounds continuing."
According to the reporter, the subjects stood the test very well: 'No one was crying out. A flashlight swung around the room, revealing drawn faces and frightened eyes. But no one was swooning. The experimenters stepped up the amplification.'
The British psychologists responsible for the experiment were reported delighted with the results. They said it proved their theory that whole populations could be exposed to 'artificial blitzkriegs' and thus rendered immune to fear during air raids.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Apr 09, 2009 -
Comments (5)
Category: Science, Experiments, Psychology, War
The Big Snit
Personally, I would happily watch a TV show titled "Sawing for Teens."
Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 02, 2009 -
Comments (4)
Category: Death, Destruction, Disasters, Domestic, Marriage, Games, War, 1980s, North America
| Who We Are |
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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, 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 |