When you are desperate to cure an illness or heal a wound, you are willing to try anything. And eventually, any substance could be tried as a medicine. If it worked, great. If it didn't, we'd probably find out why in a couple hundred years. But by then, students of history would think us really dumb. Not dumb; just desperate. After all, some of our greatest medical discoveries came about by accident or by someone trying some random substance as medicine.
Rabies is a good example of that desperation. Once symptoms appear, the disease is fatal, so victims were willing to eat burnt hair or the liver of the dog that bit them. After all, it couldn't hurt. For arthritis, people were advised top sit inside of rotting whale carcass and breathe in the fumes emitted by its decaying flesh. The patients would be mighty relieved to have access to some opioids. Weird History is eager to fill us on on bizarre medicines that were once trusted, but but now just make us say. "what were they thinking?"
Monday, January 20, 2025
What Was Once Considered Medicine
Biden Goes Home
After 50 years of service in the US government, president Joe Biden is retiring for real today. I'm sure we will miss him. He's going back to Delaware, so the Gregory Brothers made a song about it. The Delaware Tourism Board could really use this.
Miss Cellania's Links
I'd Rather Be Sick Than Eat Progresso Soup Drops Ever Again. (via Metafilter)
Your brain is lying to you about the “good old days.” The science behind why we think the past was better than the present.
A Field Guide to Cinematic Wolf Men. Videos are included for most of them.
A Brief History of Trepanation, One of the World’s Oldest Surgeries. Because sometimes you really do need a hole in the head.
The Moon Makes the List of the World’s Most Endangered Cultural Heritage Sites in 2025.
Meet the Texas Flapper Bandit. A bank robber or a lightning rod for America’s growing fear of independent women—who was Rebecca Bradley?
How to Wash Your Favorite Winter Coats at Home.
Donald Trump, crypto billionaire. (via Metafilter)
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday holiday is meant to be a day of remembrance, but also a day of service. What better memorial could there be than to have other people trying to leave the world a little better than they found it?
Sunday, January 19, 2025
Baseball Beer Blooper
How does this even happen??? pic.twitter.com/gEHesbYxq8
— Springfield Cardinals (@Sgf_Cardinals) January 15, 2025
This guy had the best seat in the house for a Springfield Cardinals game. He was sitting in the front row, behind home plate. He was ready for the action with a beer that probably cost fifteen dollars. And then a foul ball arced over and landed right in that beer, splashing foam all over him. One in a million shot! He wasn't hurt, and his instant reaction was to laugh at the situation. He knows he'll get over the wet face and the lost beer, but he gained another story to tell. One redditor mentioned he surely told at least 38 people before the video hit the internet. But it's not just a story, it's a viral video, which is made even greater by his laughter. It's sure to make the ESPN highlight reel. This is a fellow who knows how to enjoy a baseball game. And a beer. (via reddit)
Where Do I Put the Camera?
In every movie, there's an extra character that never gets mentioned, but that character's point of view is crucial. That's the camera, because the camera is the viewer. The viewer sees what the camera sees, to put us into the story. A filmmaker has to make a choice as to what the viewer will see, what they will focus on, and what that point of view means to moving the story along. That decision has to do with the way the characters in the scene move around, and the way you want the camera to move around, because after all, the camera is representing the viewer.
So many of us watch movies and either enjoy them or not, but never think about the hundreds of different decisions filmmakers have to make with every scene. But those decisions together drive how well a film incorporates the viewer into the story. Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou of Every Frame a Painting takes us into the nuts and bolts of the rigorous decision-making process behind every film. Or at least, every good film. (via Nag on the Lake)
Political News Coverage
The opening skit to Saturday Night Live last night featured the MSNBC evening lineup. They mock Ari Melber's rap lyrics, Stephanie Rule's flirting, JoyReid's lack of filter, Chris Hayes' nerdy looks, and everything about Rachel Maddow. But it's really about the media's tendency to report everything Donald Trump says, no matter how unhinged, because it's entertaining.
Pumpin' the Blues
Swedish bluesman Bottleneck John performs “Preaching the Blues” using a water pump as the rhythm section.
The waterpump blues duo - Live by the lakeside!!(via Laughing Squid)
Water splashing and rhythm swinging - I dig it, folks. This pump is simply awesome, so I HAD to go back and jam some more with it! Here's another clip featuring my National Duolian and this old, very old invention called a hydraulic ram pump!! It's just freakin' cool how steady and laidback it can provide this groovy beat!!!!! The lyrics are from Son House's song: Preaching the blues.
A Little Girl's Best Friend
(Thanks, WTM!)Doge senses human and alerts the girl for homework 😠😂
— DamnThatsInteresting (@DamnThatsInter) December 7, 2024
Literally Partner in Crime 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/8zNSOAkC8w
Saturday, January 18, 2025
The History of Rats
Over the history of civilization, rats traveled wherever humans traveled. That is, if you count "civilization" as the time beginning when we started growing our own grains. rats love those things. But furthermore, rats traveled to places where people didn't migrate as much, so they managed to spread fleas and disease to far-flung populations of people.
But the misery that rats spread among humans wasn't because they are evil. They've just become dependent on humans to provide their food. This TED-Ed lesson from Max G. Levy tells us the good things about rats, too. (via Laughing Squid)
Stop Motion Chase Scene
Kevin Parry shows us how you do a chase scene when you only have a chair and one room to film it in. (via Neatorama)