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Inside the Museum of Nonsense

coondoggie writes "Some call it the museum of failed inventions and others might just call it the stupidity museum, either way it is officially known as the Museum of Nonsense and it opened in Austria this month. It is decidedly low-tech though it does contain some high-tech ideas like a truly interesting way to anonymize identity (a piece of black card on a stick so people can't see your eyes) and a device that promises to cut down on those huge cell-phone bills (think tin cans and a string)."

83 comments

  1. but first by masternerdguy · · Score: 1

    Stupidity museum. Sounds like cable.

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  2. Is this that creationist place I heard about? by vlm · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is this that creationist place I heard about?

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    1. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by slyrat · · Score: 1

      Nope, this is what you were talking about. Though in all fairness both could be called the nonsense museum and it would fit.

    2. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by masternerdguy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I've actually been to that place. I wanted to laugh but probably would have been attacked. They made claims such as that radioactive decay didn't start occuring until modern times, and that light was getting slower. They had an exhibit of a prehistoric scene with a white girl feeding a dinosaur. They didn't even stick to the actual Bible stories. When a projector broke down everyone was singing amazing grace until it was fixed. An *interesting* experience.

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    3. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by wjousts · · Score: 1, Troll

      In fairness, you can't call the creation "museum" a museum. A Museum is dedicated to educating it's visitors. The creation "museum" is, as far as I'm aware, the only museum with the goal of making it's visitors dumber and less informed.

    4. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by fermat1313 · · Score: 1

      Awesome. I noticed they feature a Noah's Ark exhibit. Of all the crazy Old Testament stories to hang your pseudo-scientific hat on, are you sure that the ship that carried two of each of the millions of known species that currently exists (since, you know, evolution isn't true) is the one you're gonna pick?

    5. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by ByOhTek · · Score: 2

      Oh, come on, didn't you listen to River Tam?

      --
      Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
    6. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by AngryDeuce · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You want to read a hysterical article about that place, check this out.

      A guy basically pretended to be mentally handicapped and trolled the fuck out of everyone there, to include Ken Ham, the guy who created the place.

      Not a very politically correct article, but fucking awesome anyway...

    7. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Sique · · Score: 3, Informative

      The austrian one is actually called The Nonseum.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    8. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by owlnation · · Score: 1

      Thanks for posting the direct link, it's far more useful than the Godawful summary, and the even worse "full" article, which is full of backlinks and keyword spamming for other blogs.

      The Museum's been open since 1994-ish, so why samzenpus thinks this is an article worthy of anything, is far beyond my understanding.

    9. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      s/it's/its/g

      HTH, HAND.

    10. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 4, Informative

      The creationists thought of that long ago. Their answer, simplified for convenience, is roughly that *just enough* evolution happened to make it possible... and no more. Eg, the ark carried two 'cats' which then evolved-but-not-in-the-nasty-darwinist-way into wildcats, domestic cats, lions, tigers, lynxes and all the other cats big and small. They also claim that this isn't due to natural selection, but divine preemptive inclusion of the DNA for all modern cats into the ark proto-cat.

      If you really want to stump them, ask why the predatory species didn't immediatly render the prey species extinct. Their answer - and I am not making this up, really, this is the official Answers in Genesis position - is that the ark also carried a plant that grew meat, and the predators all ate that until the herbivores established a sustainable population. The plant is conveniently extinct without trace now, of course.

    11. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by halcyon1234 · · Score: 1

      the ship that carried two of each of the millions of known species that currently exists

      Oh, that one's easy! Noah only took two of each animal that existed at the time, which wasn't many. There was only, like, one type of dog. After he landed, speciation occurred, and now there's all sorts of different dogs!

      What do you mean a breed is not a species? Now you're just being difficult on purpose.

    12. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by eternaldoctorwho · · Score: 1

      As a nearby resident, I am ashamed of that place. And believe it or not, the governor is planning on re-appropriating state funds for this "museum"....despite the clear need in other state-funded areas. Like, oh I don't know, education. Well, now I know who I'm not voting for next gubernatorial election.
      On behalf of all Kentuckians, I apologize to the rest of the world.

    13. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Cyko_01 · · Score: 1

      how did this get modded +5 Funny and not troll?

    14. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

      When a projector broke down everyone was singing amazing grace until it was fixed.

      See, it works!
             

    15. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Jawnn · · Score: 1

      The Creationist Museum sprang immediately to mind for me, but y'all beat me to it. Well done, lads.

    16. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by operagost · · Score: 2

      I doubt they claimed that radioactive decay didn't occur until "modern times", because that would do the opposite of supporting the "young earth" theory. It's known that carbon dating gets inaccurate at about 11,000 years ago, because environmental conditions affected the decay rate-- that may have been part of their arguments.

      --

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    17. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Funny

      Whenever there's a logical "stumper" to their story, they can just claim Wink Wink, Kabling! as the work-around and there's nothing you can say back.

      I wash JavaScript had such a work-around instead of "object is not an object" errors. Divide by Zero error? No problem: Wink Wink Kabling!

    18. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 2

      That is the most staggeringly and phenomenally, mind-blowingly stupidest thing I have ever heard.

      But you have given me inspiration for a new joke.

      Q. Why haven't biologists evolved the ability to tell good jokes?

      A. The ecological niche was already filled.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    19. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      Of course it does! It's called try { ... } catch(err) { };.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    20. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      Did they come up with an excuse for why speciation stopped proceeding at such an incredible rate?

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    21. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      They *could* just claim 'God did it' for all points, but they consider that to be bad form. Cheating, in a way. They'll use it if they have to, but their first choice is always to try to find an explanation that at least sounds vaguely scientific. Thus you end up with things like hypertectonics, the claim that continential drift used to be really fast (Kilometers per day) so that pangea broke up only a few thousand years ago, but slowed down before we could measure it. This explains how it was possible for the ark to repopulate the entire world from a single landing point. They *could* just say that God teleported the animals around, but that is the cheating answer. Pseudoscience is better for them than outright miracles, strangely enough.

    22. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      I didn't even get to the bit where they believe the upper atmosphere used to be a giant hollow sphere of crystal-clear ice.

      Again, not making it up... though that one is a minority view even to young-earth creationists.

      They also believe sin causes mutations. That is their explanation for why mutation-rate dating gives species divergence figures millions of years in the past: Before modern culture started spreading sin all over the place, the mutation rate was much lower.

    23. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Runaway1956 · · Score: 1

      You've just got to have a guber in a gubernatorial, don't you?

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    24. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by bigbangnet · · Score: 1

      I would probably back off and go away. Experiences like you state freak me out especially when they take these kinds of place way too seriously from the way you say it.

    25. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      I can already feel my ability to make jokes succumbing to natural selection.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    26. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      inaccurate != non-existent

    27. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Bucky24 · · Score: 1

      I didn't even get to the bit where they believe the upper atmosphere used to be a giant hollow sphere of crystal-clear ice.

      I remember hearing that in church... That was one of the things that make me start to question the blind creationist theory. While I don't find it hard to believe that a sphere of ice could form around a planet, I find it hard to believe that a sphere of ice formed around THIS planet, while still allowing sunlight through, and not melting until the flood.

      --
      All the world's a CPU, and all the men and women merely AI agents
    28. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      It'd also have to be a hollow sphere so people could live under it, with the planet perfectly balanced in the middle - and it'd have to be perfect ice too, as Genesis describes stars pre-flood, which means it must have been optically clear.

    29. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Bucky24 · · Score: 1

      and it'd have to be perfect ice too, as Genesis describes stars pre-flood, which means it must have been optically clear.

      Oh, so that sort of thing actually exists? All the ice I've ever seen is clearISH, see-through to the point where a thick enough concentration would obscure vision. But if perfectly clear ice exists then I guess that sort of thing would work...

      --
      All the world's a CPU, and all the men and women merely AI agents
    30. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by dingo_kinznerhook · · Score: 1

      If this "meat tree" thing is really an official AIG position, post a link to it. I try to keep up with what they publish, but haven't ever heard of it.

      --
      "God does not play Minecraft with the world." - Albert Einstein
    31. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by RDW · · Score: 1

      I would probably back off and go away. Experiences like you state freak me out especially when they take these kinds of place way too seriously from the way you say it.

      A couple of visits to their Plane'arium might change your mind:

      http://creationmuseum.org/whats-here/exhibits/planetarium/

      "Even if you've been to the planetarium before, come join us again and see the universe in a whole new light."

    32. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      Perfectly clear ice does exist. It just forms under only very specific conditions that are very, very rarely found in nature. If you want clear ice, you'll have to make some yourself.

    33. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1
      Seems they have changed it. It would be more precise to say they believed that before the fall, there existed a plant which grew meat-like bark upon which carnivorous creatures would feed (Needing their sharp claws to strip the bark off). They have now reconsidered that, and decided on grounds of more precise bible translation that carnivores actually could survive based on any plant, and it was only after the fall that they became unable to survive except on meat due to a divine rewriting of their DNA. Presumably, though I cannot find them saying so directly, the process was slow enough that carnivores were still capable of living off an all-plant diet at the time of the flood, which they place only 1000-2000 years after the fall.

      So then, according to Genesis 1:29–30, God originally created men and animals to be plant eaters. God’s statement in Genesis 9:3 strengthens this restriction placed on man. ... if man obeyed God, he would not have eaten meat until after the Flood and most certainly not before the Fall of Adam. ... There is another confirmation that the finished creation was to be vegetarian. We can see this by the change in both the animals and man, and that this change took place at the Fall of Adam.

      They are quite clear on the means by which herivores suddenly grow teeth, claws and a taste for meat though:

      A clear examination of the biblical record suggests that a sudden change in nature took place. The suggestion that God reprogrammed the genetic material of animals and plants does have support from the text.

      I remember the old meat-plant quite clearly, but it looks like my memory is just outdated: AiG favor a new theory now. http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/tj/v5/n2/diet

    34. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by wjousts · · Score: 1

      Well done. Have a fucking cookie.

    35. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by ThePeices · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Can I have two fucking cookies?

      1, it would be educational to study the reproductive cycle of cookies, and,
      2, I want an endless supply of little cookies.

    36. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by ThePeices · · Score: 1

      Its also known as the God of the Gaps argument.

      Though to be honest, the only gap is the long silence you hear as you suddenly realise that the person making the claim is genuinely delusional, and possibly mentally unstable.

    37. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funniest Comment EVER!!!

    38. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or ask God to do it for you...

    39. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      X2!

    40. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wish I could mod this post up to +6. That link is a priceless gem and I bless you for sharing it. ;-)

      I haven't laughed so hard in weeks. Seriously.

    41. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The problem being that the creationists try to make it seem as though carbon dating is the only kind of radiometric dating there is, while in fact it's one of many (with slight overlaps, and different accuracy) covering different timespans (some in the range of a billion years).

    42. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      You shouldn't mock the afflicted.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    43. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      If someone criticises others for being dumb, they are fair game for criticism if they betray their own stupidity by making a basic grammatical mistake.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    44. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      If you really want to stump them, ask why the predatory species didn't immediatly render the prey species extinct. Their answer - and I am not making this up, really, this is the official Answers in Genesis position - is that the ark also carried a plant that grew meat, and the predators all ate that until the herbivores established a sustainable population. The plant is conveniently extinct without trace now, of course.

      And people wonder how a loony belief system like Scientology can fool so many people.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    45. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I can't believe people are seriously debating this idea here.

      It's bollocks, end of.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    46. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Samzenpus is like the peace of God that passeth all understanding, except that he's not the peace of God..

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    47. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      On behalf of all Kentuckians, I apologize to the rest of the world.

      You could always set fire to it and say that it was hit by lightning, and therefore an act of God.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    48. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      how did this get modded +5 Funny and not troll?

      Probably because it's (a) fucking hilarious and (b) not a troll, since, hard as it may be for you to believe, many of us sincerely believe that Creationism and the Bible in general are nonsense.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    49. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by wjousts · · Score: 1

      On come on. A simple mistake when writing something real quick clearly makes me as dumb as a creationist. Fuck you.

    50. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by wjousts · · Score: 1

      NO! Only one cookie for you. Find something else to be pedantic about if you want another one.

    51. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Well, that can explain black-holes, but not much else. Good try though (pun intended).

    52. Re:Is this that creationist place I heard about? by SleazyRidr · · Score: 1

      I think it's part of the geek mind-set, take a completely ridiculous idea, then think about things in the real world that could be different enough to make it happen, then think about what else that would change. It's the same line of thinking that leads to science fiction.

  3. Strange part of town. by Artea · · Score: 5, Funny

    Right next door to the Ministry of Silly Walks

    1. Re:Strange part of town. by Sulphur · · Score: 1

      Right next door to the Ministry of Silly Walks

      Down the street from the Hole in the Ground housing project.

    2. Re:Strange part of town. by Ihmhi · · Score: 1

      There's quite the nice pet store in that area too, but for some reason they don't accept customer returns anymore.

  4. Wow by mr1911 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Who knew the Museum of Nonsense was a real place. I expected this to be a story about Congress.

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    1. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Beat me to it, I had the same first thought.

  5. How big is the Space Nutter building? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You gotta house a whole lot of nonsense there!

  6. Be interesting to see what's there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It wasn't that long ago that a Solar-powered Flashlight was considered a joke.

  7. Austria?! by fredmunge · · Score: 1

    I thought it was about the one in Washington DC. My Bad.

    1. Re:Austria?! by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      I thought it _was_ Washington, DC.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    2. Re:Austria?! by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      The Smithsonian is in DC...

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    3. Re:Austria?! by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but the Nonsense is down the street in the Capitol Building and across the way in the White House.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
  8. yes!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    we are the most awesomest country of all :D

  9. Oblig. Quote by matt_gaia · · Score: 2

    It's in Austria? Well, "G'day Mate!"

    1. Re:Oblig. Quote by Grizzley9 · · Score: 1

      "Let's put another 'shrimp on the bar-by",
      "let's not".
      rolls up window and gets head stuck.

  10. Good Ideia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whenever I approach a new topic , the first thing I do, is to learn what not to do , that way I avoid lots of mistakes, Nonsense museum should have good learning material. Learning from others mistakes is priceless.

    1. Re:Good Ideia by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Whenever I approach a new topic , the first thing I do, is to learn what not to do , that way I avoid lots of mistakes

      Not if someone lies to you about what the things not to do are. I hate fucking newbies.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  11. Will this video appear in the museum? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'll never get those 2 minutes back...

  12. Is slashdot included? by wbr1 · · Score: 1

    The code is decidedly low tech, and most of it is nonsense!

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
  13. Kinda like the Museum of Jurassic Technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.mjt.org is actually pretty cool to visit in person (9341 Venice Boulevard, Culver City, CA) --

    Like a coat of two colors, the Museum serves dual functions. On the one hand the Museum provides the academic community with a specialized repository of relics and artifacts from the Lower Jurassic, with an emphasis on those that demonstrate unusual or curious technological qualities. On the other hand the Museum serves the general public by providing the visitor a hands-on experience of "life in the Jurassic"....

  14. A copy of the Kyoto Protocol by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 1

    Couldn't resist.

    And then there's Occupy wherever. Wake me when they start looking like those lovely Ukrainian ladies protesting at Davos...topless.

    1. Re:A copy of the Kyoto Protocol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the global troll council, and we are very sorry, but you have been denied membership in our community. The reasons for this decision were based on the lameness of your trolling, the boringly poor execution, and the general lack of rage attraction.

      Suggestion: Try to work in some barely noticeable first-class pro-ACTA bullshit.

      If you feel that you have been wronged, we can offer you our dispute resolution and feedback program.

  15. Anonymizer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anyone else got the sudden urge to walk around downtown or public transit with a black bar on a stick before your eyes?

  16. Use BlackBar glasses and free up your hands by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Black bar on a stick is so 1990...

    http://www.stupidiotic.com/product_info.php?products_id=64

    1. Re:Use BlackBar glasses and free up your hands by Bucky24 · · Score: 1

      I actually own a pair of those. I use them not so much anymore for the anonymous properties (because honestly when you're the only person wearing a pair everyone knows who you are) but more because the design allows me to see behind me while wearing them.

      --
      All the world's a CPU, and all the men and women merely AI agents
  17. Close. Cigar ? by vikingpower · · Score: 1

    That is not too far from where I live. Might give it a go if my pending patent application is refused.

    --
    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
  18. What about religions? by FridayBob · · Score: 1

    If this really is a museum about nonsense, then I will only take it seriously if it includes all of the world's religions.*

    On the other hand, if it's really called the "Museum of Failed Inventions", perhaps religions should not be included, because as viruses of the mind they have been very effective indeed.

    *) Well, say all of the ones that at some point had over a million followers.

  19. It's just in tme by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hear they are looking for a place to open the Obummer library. It will be a perfect fit.

  20. The guy in the video... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    His eyes are so close together he looks like a flounder. It's kind of creeping me out.

  21. Museum of Scientific Hysteria? by dorpus · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Why not build a museum on the history of hoaxes propagated by leading scientists? Over the years, scientists were absolutely sure that some doomsday event would happen. They were sure that the 1910 Haley comet would extinguish all life on Earth; some flu pandemic would kill billions of people because we are "overdue"; the earth is supposed to heat to a fireball, or cool to an ice ball; genetic "degeneracy" would take over the human race; killer bees would wipe out humanity; nuclear war is a certainty; the list goes on.

    Or we could talk about the history of public health recommendation flip-flops. Parents should never pick up, hug, or breast-feed their babies, except now we should breast-feed them until they are 5 years old. Babies should be put on their stomachs, except now they should never be put on their stomachs. Everybody should get a flu shot, except that they never work. Nobody should ever wash their hands, but just use hand sanitizer; but wait, this year, they should wash their hands. Every woman should squeeze their breasts in the shower, but now only doctors should. Every man over 50 should get a colonoscopy, except the procedure does more harm than good, since nobody bothers to clean the probes and they puncture intestines.