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Saturday, September 12, 2015

Check out these dashcam videos of a meteor exploding in the sky in Thailand


Spectacular footage from several dashcams captured the sky lighting up over the country’s capital of Bangkok.

The object is seen burning brightly as it speeds through the clear blue sky, and scientists now say it was likely an asteroid burning up as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere.



Friday, September 11, 2015

Friday links


33 Unusual Old Remedies That Are Mostly Obsolete, plus related dubious medical advice.


ICYMI, last Friday's links are here, and include gravy wrestling championships, Batman's film evolution, Star Trek politics (and the math of tribble reproduction), and a gallery of photos from the Diaper Derbies (mid-20th century baby races).

Supercut: Every Jason Statham Punch. Ever.

For fellow Jason Statham fans, Burger Fiction put together this excellent supercut:



Film List (in order of appearance):

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Turn It Up
Ghost Of Mars
The One
Mean Machine
The Transporter
Cellular
Transporter 2
Chaos
Crank
In The Name Of The King
War
The Bank Job
Death Race
Transporter 3
Crank 2: High Voltage
The Expendables
The Mechanic
Gnomeo and Juliet
Killer Elite
Safe
The Expendables 2
Parker
Redemption
Homefront
Wild Card
Furious 7

33 Unusual Old Remedies That Are Mostly Obsolete, plus related dubious medical advice

As a grandma (with grandchildren numbers 13 and 14 on the way!), I'm inclined, as a general principle, to believe that old ways are (almost) always the best. I have to admit, however, to having a few doubts about some of these:



Previous, semi-related posts:

How to Prevent Pregnancy, c. 1260 (the weasel/scorpion method), plus other dubious pregnancy and newborn advice from the past.

Advice from c. 530: How To Use Bacon, including for medicinal purposes such as "thick bacon, placed for a long time on all wounds, be they external or internal or caused by a blow, both cleanses any putrefaction and aids healing".


How to Stop Bleeding, 1664:
“To Stench a Bleeding Wound: Lay hogs Dung, hot from the Hog, to the Bleeding Wound.”
~Samuel Strangehopes, A Book of Knowledge in Three Parts (166[4])
Dubious medical device du jour - the prostate warmer.


Urine-drinking Hindu cult believes a warm cup before sunrise straight from virgin cow cures cancer, baldness.

Further reading: If you like this sort of thing (or need a Christmas present for someone who does), I highly recommend:

Ask the Past: Pertinent and Impertinent Advice from Yesteryear, put together by the excellent blog Ask The Past and/or, for more narrowly focused questionable medical advice: