November 4, 2009
[space] The Average Color of the Universe … ‘The answer, depicted above, is a conditionally perceived shade of beige.’
November 2, 2009
[tv] Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome … ‘Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome (also SORAS or rapid aging) is the term used to describe the aging of a television character (usually an infant or child, but also sometimes a teenager) that is faster than they should be aging, given the timeline of the show. The process is usually done to allow for more rapid character development, and to allow the writers to develop new storylines for the character.’
October 26, 2009
[weird] Meet the Georgetown University Sophomore Who’s Hiring a Personal Assistant … ‘Tasks such as doing laundry that involve a lot of waiting around (time when you could be doing other tasks or doing your own stuff) will be counted for the approximate amount of time it would take to do the labor involved. For instance, laundry will be counted for half an hour even though a laundry cycle takes 1.5 hrs to complete.’
October 22, 2009
[weird] Take A Weird Break Blog … a blog collecting weird headlines from Take A Break style magazines. [via qwghlm.co.uk]
October 19, 2009
[weird] Left Brain / Right Brain Conflict … Look at the chart and say the COLOUR not the WORD and then get very tongue tied.
September 16, 2009
[weird] 20 most bizarre Craigslist adverts of all time … For example, Pope Hats: ‘Because of this terrible economy, I’m having to shut down my business. I have OVER 1300 Pope hats (replicas) that I REALLY need to get rid of. The pope hats came from China and are a little too small for most adult heads and are also irritating to the skin, so you would need to have long hair or wear a smaller hat underneath (just like the REAL POPE). Dogs do not like to wear these pope hats, but maybe a large cat or maybe a nice dog would wear one.’
August 20, 2009
[war] The Wandering Soul Psyop Tape Of Vietnam … ‘Listen to the eerie sounds of “The Wandering Soul” – also known as “Ghost Tape Number 10” – that was broadcast by loudspeakers installed on Swifts and other units during “Chieu Hoi” and Psychological Warfare missions to “taunt” the enemy.’
June 29, 2009
[tweets] Jon Ronson (posted on Twitter): ‘dennis neilson did the Braille translation of my book, Them.’
May 24, 2009
[weird] Have you heard ‘the Hum’? … BBC News on people who’s lives are ruined by hearing a constant strange hum … ‘A low-pitched drone known as the “Largs hum” has troubled the coastal town of Largs in Strathclyde for more than two decades. At least one suicide in the UK has been linked with the hum.’
April 19, 2009
[tv] Disturbing Strokes … the opening to Different Strokes set to music from a horror film … ‘This has turned out far more creepy than I thought it would.’
April 13, 2009
[science] Go Watch: What happens when you drop a cannon ball in a bath of mercury? [via Kottke]
March 17, 2009
[weird] Computer programmer from Finland has lost finger replaced with USB drive … ‘Using a traditional prosthetic finger Jerry has been able embed a ‘USB key’ – like the ones used in traditional flash drives – giving him the world’s only two gigabyte finger. The finger is not permanently attached to his hand meaning it can be removed when plugged into a computer.’
January 6, 2009
[funny] Let’s look back on the year to come … David Mitchell on the events of 2009 … ‘James Bond to commit suicide in next film: Bond purists were outraged by the news that the suave womanising superspy hero will finally lose the will to live at the end of the next movie, Die and Live Death is Golden Casino Gun Depression (working title).’
[funny] The Great British Sandwich … there are some odd layers in that there sandwich! …‘Help build the world’s tallest sandwich’ [via Mondo a-go-go]
December 5, 2008
[tv] Watching: YouTube – Ludwig … (more…)
December 4, 2008
[comics] Watchmen Unmasked … Occult symbolism in an Alan Moore comic. Really?! … ‘On the morning of September 11th, 2001 A.D., I was not working. On my day off, my mother phones me at 7:00 PST to wake me up: “Something incredible is happening”. When the first tower came down, I saw the beast more clearly than I have ever seen it, and yes, for a moment it looked just like a giant octopus driving this giant building straight down DIRECTLY THROUGH THE PATH OF GREATEST RESISTANCE LIKE A NAIL. And I thought, “It’s Chapter Twelve of Watchmen. It’s a stunt, a gag, a hoax. Someone has done this thing to fool us all again. Who? WHO HAS DONE THIS THING TO ME?’ [via BeaucoupKevin]
November 7, 2008
[funny] Matt Webb’s 100 Head Cattle Drive 2008 … go help Matt achieve his dream …‘I like small plastic cows. I don’t know why. I haven’t owned any until today. For many years I have wanted a herd for my home. Perhaps 100 or so. Yes, 100 would do nicely. DO NOT ASK ME WHY. (I think it would be a neat thing.) … A promise: IF I GET 100 × SCHLEICH HOLSTEIN OR FLECKVIEH COWS, I WILL DONATE £500 TO A CHARITY CHOSEN BY MAJORITY VOTE.’
September 21, 2008
[end] How To Destroy The Earth … ‘You’ve seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy the Earth. You’ve heard people on the news claiming that the next nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end the world. Fools. The Earth is built to last. It is a 4,550,000,000-year-old, 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000-tonne ball of iron. It has taken more devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you’ve had hot dinners, and lo, it still orbits merrily.’ [via Metafilter]
August 15, 2008
[funny] Best of Craigslist: Nemesis required. 6-month project with possibilty to extend … ‘Evil laugh preferred.’ [via iamcal.com]
June 21, 2008
[life] Trapped in a Lift … slightly disturbing time lapse video of a man stuck in a lift for 41 hours.
May 8, 2008
[london] Time-lapse Vid of Dissolving an Oyster Card in Acetone (aka Nail Varnish) … which seems to leave behind a usable RFID Tag and it’s antenna … ‘So tomorrow morning I’ll attempt to use this naked oyster card to journey to work. If I’m successful (and not arrested for terrorism) I’ll have to decide what my new oyster card will be. So far I’m thinking either stitching it into my watch, or wrapping it around a magic wand…’
April 1, 2008
[weird] File Under Wrong: Most. Distrubing. Teddy Bear. Ever. [via Sore Eyes]
February 12, 2008
[space] An astronaut from NASA describes the smell of space: ‘At first I couldn’t quite place it. It must have come from the air ducts that re-pressed the compartment. Then I noticed that this smell was on their suit, helmet, gloves, and tools. It was more pronounced on fabrics than on metal or plastic surfaces. It is hard to describe this smell; it is definitely not the olfactory equivalent to describing the palette sensations of some new food as “tastes like chicken.” The best description I can come up with is metallic; a rather pleasant sweet metallic sensation. It reminded me of my college summers where I labored for many hours with an arc welding torch…’
January 31, 2008
[food] Dip Once or Dip Twice — a food microbiologist examines double dipping at parties as practiced by George in Seinfeld … ‘On average, the students found that three to six double dips transferred about 10,000 bacteria from the eater’s mouth to the remaining dip. Each cracker picked up between one and two grams of dip. That means that sporadic double dipping in a cup of dip would transfer at least 50 to 100 bacteria from one mouth to another with every bite.’ [via Kottke]
January 9, 2008
[weird] Dearly departed to heat Manchester crematorium — Mega City One’s Resyk comes one step closer … ‘A Manchester crematorium where “grieving friends and relatives have complained of the cold during services” will tackle the problem by using the “body heat” generated in the incineration process to crank up the temperature…’
December 21, 2007
[vids] 2007’s top 10 online videos — this video of 1500 prison inmates in the Philippines performing Thriller is worth checking out … (more…)
December 8, 2007
[comics] Another weird comic guest-star: Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen meets Don Rickles … ‘Kirby’s early 70s run on JIMMY OLSEN was his first work for DC after leaving Marvel, and DC let him go hog wild with the book. Kirby used it as a springboard to introduce his “Fourth World” concepts like Darkseid, the New Gods, etc. Oh, and famous insult comic Don Rickles’ twin, “Goody” Rickles.’
December 7, 2007
[comics] Scans of Daredevil #133 — from 1976 – oddly guest starring Uri Geller … ‘Daredevil, Wait For Me — I’m a Mentalist, not an Acrobat!’
December 5, 2007
[funny] Arnold Shares his Deepest Feelings — yet another of those amusingly weird YTMND pages. [via linkbunnies.org]
November 30, 2007
[shopping] Complete Receipt Defeat … ‘I recently bought a four-pack of Play-Doh — big plans for the weekend — at my local Toys R Us and received, along with my purchase, over a foot and a half of receipt. That comes out to almost an inch of paper for every dime I spent. Here it is, broken down by height in inches…’
November 15, 2007
[war] British Nukes were protected by Bike Locks … ‘To arm the weapons you just open a panel held by two captive screws – like a battery cover on a radio – using a thumbnail or a coin. Inside are the arming switch and a series of dials which you can turn with an Allen key to select high yield or low yield, air burst or groundburst and other parameters. The Bomb is actually armed by inserting a bicycle lock key into the arming switch and turning it through 90 degrees.’ [via Grayblog]
November 12, 2007
[music] The Hidden Message in Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust — a demonstration that you can hear “It’s fun to smoke Marijuana” if you play Queen’s song Another One Bites the Dust backwards. [via linkbunnies.org]
November 2, 2007
[food] Using McDonalds’ As Pizza Toppings … ‘This is a culinary Frankenstein cooked by Bizarro, a crude combination of deliciousness into an artery-jamming fatty Voltron. The thing is, I would totally eat it. You would, too, stop lying.’ [via iamcal.com]
October 29, 2007
October 15, 2007
[weird] Right Brain v Left Brain Optical Illusion … I see this rotating anti-clockwise until after concentrating on the feet it flipped on me and started rotating clockwise. Weird! :) [via Kottke]
October 12, 2007
[food] Fraser Lewry’s Animal Alphabet — Fraser of Blogjam attempts to eat an animal for each letter of the alphabet … ‘I’m a) not allowed to use Latin names, and b) if I’m struggling to come up with an animal beginning with ‘R’, for instance, I’m not allowed to use “ring-tailed lemur” because all lemurs are filed under ‘L’. Not that I’d eat lemur, of course, because they’re an endangered species, which brings me to c) no endangered species.’
August 7, 2007
[comics] I Am Punisher (Black) — Chris’s Invincible Super Blog looks at the one of the odder moments during Frank Castle’s adventures in the Nineties … ‘Thus, wanted by the law, hunted by the Kingpin, and being, y’know, black, the Punisher decides it’s time for a little road trip, and hits the open road for a trip to Chicago in order to take the most appropriate course of action. He starts hanging out with Luke Cage…’
July 25, 2007
[crime] Crime Scenes with Shapes — pretend you’re Gil Grissom with Microsoft Visio. ‘…many new shapes for creating Visio drawings to depict crime, accident, or incident scenes for courtroom presentations.’
July 17, 2007
[politics] Margaret Thatcher and Ice Cream: ‘Fans of the Mister Softee style have Margaret Thatcher [..] to thank. She was one of the team of chemists at J Lyons who first developed soft frozen ice cream.’ [via boundr]
July 3, 2007
[uʍopǝpısdn] dı1ɟ — .sʇɹnɥ pɐǝɥ ʎɯ .uʍop ǝpısdn ʇxǝʇ dı1ɟ oʇ 1ooʇ qǝʍ :)
June 30, 2007
[science] Yes, the universe looks like a fix. But that doesn’t mean that a god fixed it … ‘The impression of design is illusory: our universe has simply hit the jackpot in a gigantic cosmic lottery. The multiverse theory certainly cuts the ground from beneath intelligent design, but it falls short of a complete explanation of existence. For a start, there has to be a physical mechanism to make all those universes and allocate bylaws to them. This process demands its own laws, or meta-laws. Where do they come from?’
June 28, 2007
[politics] Go to Australia or use your own Judgment … ‘As prime minister, with ultimate responsibility for Britain’s nuclear deterrent, Mr Brown has to write a letter, in his own hand, giving instructions detailing what the UK’s response should be in the event of a pre-emptive nuclear attack. The letter will be opened only by the commander of a British Trident submarine, who would have to assume that the prime minister was no longer in a position to take “live” command of the situation. The options are said to include the orders: “Put yourself under the command of the US, if it is still there”; “go to Australia”; “retaliate”; “or use your own judgment”. Each new prime minister writes the letter as soon as he or she takes office…’
May 26, 2007
[games] Pac-man’s Skull — a photo of what a real Pac-man’s skull might look like.
April 26, 2007
[blogs] In which Weird and Inexplicable Things Happen Involving Letters, Trees, Front Doors and Keys — Dave Gorman on why he’s changed his locks … ‘It was about 9.30 on Sunday night and I and a friend were watching some TV and having a lazy time of it. Pizza was involved and bellies were full. I heard a key in a door and I heard a door opening and there was a moment before I realised that it was my door opening. Now… no one else should have a key for mine and no one else should be letting themselves into my house at 9.30 on a Sunday evening…’ [via Feeling Listless]
April 24, 2007
[drugs] 72-Hour Party People … behind the scenes at 3 day meth binge — ‘”Oh, my God, you know the fucking war, right? The liberation, the occupation, whatever? And the Palestinians, right? And the Israelis and the Muslims and Hindus and all the hate and the fucking guns and the bombs and the, uh, the, uh, you know, all the children with their legs blown off by land mines in Afghanistan, right? You see what I’m saying? I mean, you all know, you’ve all seen like a million times that one picture of that little boy from Afghanistan, right? And he’s in his little purple robe, with his little white sheepherder’s hat, and his little Christmas Carol, um, what do you call it? His Tiny Tim crutches, you know, right? And he’s got these, like, you know, like these little sad, brown, puppy dog, fucking abused-animal, dog-pound, take-me-home-please eyes, right? I mean, God…okay, right now, let’s get online, and let’s find out who he is and where he lives and, and, and, let’s find out what we need to do to buy him a new leg, right now! Who’s got a laptop?” Bonnie is 27 and a florist…’ [via Metafilter]
April 17, 2007
April 7, 2007
[green] I’ll Compost Your Corpse — The BBC’s “Ethical Man” looks at the issues around decomposing a corpse in an enviromentally friendly way. ‘…the problem with the way a corpse decomposes at the bottom of a grave is that there isn’t enough oxygen to get a good aerobic compost going. The main by-products of aerobic decomposition include carbon dioxide and water meanwhile anaerobic decomposition produces methane – 23 times as powerful a greenhouse-gas as CO2.’ [via Digg]
March 7, 2007
[iraq] Pat Dollard, Hollywood Guy Gone Gonzo … ‘After his fourth wife left him because she got upset about his hobbies, which included cocaine and hookers, Hollywood agent/producer Pat Dollard decided to get his head together by flying to Iraq to hang out with Marines and fight insurgents and film a pro-war documentary that would make him “the Michael Moore of the right.” A few weeks later, he sent his Hollywood pals a photo of himself with a Mohawk haircut, a machine gun and the word DIE shaved into his chest hair. After that, things started to get weird.’ [thanks Phil]
January 29, 2007
[tv] Weird, or just Wanting? — Louis Theroux on Weirdness. ‘…what I did come to realize was this: that the strangest behaviours are always answering some very normal human need – for love, for religious meaning, for a place in the world. And that the “weird beliefs” themselves never stood in the way of me making a human connection…’ [via As Above]
January 26, 2007