An eclectic assortment of stuff: food, archaeology, fun, books, history, geekery, etc.
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc, history & archaeology, strange stuff on Sep 24th, 2009
From Wired: 1 Million Spiders Make Golden Silk for Rare Cloth.
A rare textile made from the silk of more than a million wild spiders goes on display today at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
To produce this unique golden cloth, 70 people spent four years collecting golden orb spiders from telephone [...]
Posted in strange stuff on Jan 1st, 2009
To start the year off right, I know you need to see astonishing clothes made of flowers and leaves. Off you go, then, to visit Nicole Dextras’ weedrobes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. And then reflect on the boring state of your own wardrobe.
Posted in strange stuff on Oct 26th, 2008
From Pink Tentacle: Monsters in mid-1870s news prints.
For a brief period in the mid-1870s, artistic woodblock prints known as "newspaper nishiki-e" were a popular form of mass entertainment in Japan. These colorful prints fed the public’s enormous appetite for sensationalism by retelling shocking stories culled from the major newspapers of the day. The Meiji government [...]
Posted in strange stuff on Oct 24th, 2008
I suppose buying fresh veggies means that I miss a certain amount of frozen broccoli fun. From Bread and Honey:
…she suddenly remembered this crazy broccoli package in her freezer she wanted to show me. She handed me the box and I studied it carefully, squinting, even allowing my eyes to blur, to try and see [...]
Posted in strange stuff on Oct 23rd, 2008
From The Telegraph: Scientists make cat that glows in the dark.
By day he is just a normal tabby but when the lights go out this ginger cat glows in the dark.
Scientists have genetically modified a cat as part of an experiement that could lead to treatments for conditions like cystic fibrosis.
Named Mr Green Genes, he [...]
Posted in strange stuff on Oct 21st, 2008
I know you can’t be expected to get through today without a Monsterous Fish story. The National Library of Wales obliges with A most strange and true report of a monsterous fish, who appeared in the forme of a woman, from her waste upwards by P.G.
The library explains:
This unique pamphlet tells the story of an [...]
Posted in strange stuff on Sep 19th, 2008
From the BBC: Survey turns hill into a mountain.
A Welsh hill has been upgraded to a mountain after three walkers found its official measurement was just too low.
Mynydd Graig Goch in Snowdonia was originally put at 1,998ft (609m), just short of the magic 2,000ft (609.6m) that qualifies as a mountain.
But the walkers found its true [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc, strange stuff on Sep 9th, 2008
From the BBC: DR Congo frees goats from prison.
A minister in DR Congo has ordered a Kinshasa jail to release a dozen goats, which he said they were being held there illegally.
Deputy Justice Minister Claude Nyamugabo said he found the goats just in time during a routine jail visit.
The beasts were due to appear in [...]
Posted in environment, strange stuff on Sep 2nd, 2008
This has to be the strangest form of housing I’ve seen in a while. From the 24 Hour Museum: Danish artists create life-size walking house for Wysing Arts Centre near Cambridge.
With oil prices rocketing and mortgages plummeting, visionary Danish artist collective N55 has solved the joint problems of transport and housing by building a home [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc, environment, strange stuff on Aug 6th, 2008
What if you’d bought a house in a good neighbourhood, moved in, and then realized that you had a major rat problem caused by the old ladies next door? The LA Weekly tells of Scott and Liz Denham, who had that very problem: Unchallenged by Health Officials, Elderly Twins Fed Local Vermin Population.
"You start [...]
Posted in strange stuff on Jul 30th, 2008
Something to be glad about: you can die in relative obscurity, rest in peace, and know that nobody will ever sell your bloomers at auction for £4,500. Poor Queen Victoria hasn’t been as fortunate.
Posted in strange stuff on Jun 30th, 2008
This is the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska event! From the BBC: Fire in the sky: Tunguska at 100.
At 7:17am on 30 June 1908, an immense explosion tore through the forest of central Siberia.
Some 80 million trees were flattened over an area of 2,000 square km (800 square miles) near the Tunguska River.
The blast was [...]
Posted in strange stuff on Jun 18th, 2008
From Atypical Events: World’s Weirdest Wedding Customs.
All over the world, people practice numerous wedding customs that have been passed on through many generations. Although each has a long history of meaning and significance, many just seem strange and out of place in today’s culture.
Check out some of the historical wedding customs that are still practiced [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc, strange stuff on Jun 11th, 2008
From discovery.com: One-Horned ‘Unicorn’ Deer Born in Italy.
A deer with a single horn in the center of its head — much like the fabled, mythical unicorn — has been spotted in a nature preserve in Italy, park officials said Wednesday.
"This is fantasy becoming reality," Gilberto Tozzi, director of the Center of Natural Sciences in Prato, [...]
Posted in strange stuff on Jun 11th, 2008
First off, you must go and look at the photos of this amazing homemade submarine. Incredible, isn’t it?
Now I’m as interested in submarines as the next person, but what I find really fascinating is the number of people who come to Mirabilis.ca as a result of searching for homemade submarine or some similar thing at [...]
Posted in strange stuff on May 31st, 2008
From The Telegraph: Tokyo homeless woman lived in stranger’s cupboard for a year.
The woman, identified as 58-year-old Tatsuko Horikawa, was found by police searching the home of the man, who believed he lived alone in Fukuoka.
The resident of the house, who has not been named, became suspicious that he was the victim of repeat burglaries [...]
Posted in religion, strange stuff on May 26th, 2008
From the BBC: Spanish village holds baby jump.
Grown men have been leaping over rows of babies in the north Spanish village of Castrillo de Murcia in an annual rite meant to ward off the Devil.
Jumpers dressed as the Colacho, a character representing the Devil, bounded over clusters of bemused infants laid out on mattresses. [continue, [...]
Posted in strange stuff on May 5th, 2008
Oh my goodness! I thought I’d seen all the weird bikes by now, but here’s a doozy: das BierBike. Go look!
Thanks to Leanne for writing to tell me about this.
Posted in strange stuff on May 4th, 2008
Here’s a delightful oddity for you: the walking bicycle.
Don’t you want one?
From time to time I’ve blogged about other weird bicycles, like the Conference Bicycle and the Steam Bicycle. Which one would you rather have?
I have two unusual bicycles myself, but nothing that weird.
(Link to the walking bicycle found at Neatorama.)
Posted in coffee, strange stuff on Feb 7th, 2008
From Ananova: Praying for a cuppa.
The power of prayer is all it takes to relax with a drink at a newly opened Croatian cafe.
Customers at the Jedro coffee shop in Zagreb are asked to say a certain number of prayers in return for their drinks.
The most expensive beverage is a Coca-Cola which costs five ‘Hail [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, strange stuff on Dec 30th, 2007
Oh, this is lovely. From the New York Times: Egypt to Copyright Landmarks.
Egypt plans to copyright the Pyramids, the Sphinx and various museum pieces and use the royalties from copies to pay for the upkeep of its historic monuments and sites, The Guardian of London reported. Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of the Supreme Council [...]
Posted in strange stuff on Dec 2nd, 2007
Well. You wouldn’t want to miss the Pope’s Cologne now, would you? The about page explains:
The Pope’s Cologne is a classic Old World cologne made from the private formula of Pope Pius IX (1792-1878). We obtained this formula from descendants of the commander of his Papal Guard and lifelong friend, General Charles Charette. We have [...]
Posted in strange stuff on Nov 27th, 2007
From the Daily Mail: Eighth wonder of the world? The stunning temples secretly carved out below ground by ‘paranormal’ eccentric.
But it is deep underground, buried into the ancient rock, that the region’s greatest wonders are concealed.
Here, 100ft down and hidden from public view, lies an astonishing secret – one that has drawn comparisons with the [...]
Posted in strange stuff on Oct 26th, 2007
Ok, now which of these do you want? Furniture that transforms has some fun stuff. The Trey chair would be handy, I think. For pure zany fun, the sofa car or sofa bike would be strong contenders.
Posted in strange stuff on Oct 1st, 2007
From the BBC: Carvings riddle stumps villagers.
Puzzled residents across Yorkshire are turning detective after mysterious stone heads were left outside their properties in the dead of night.
The sculptures feature the same carved symbol and come with a riddle attached.
Despite CCTV film showing a man leaving three heads outside a post office, their origin remains unknown.
So [...]