Category:
Medicine
Medicine
Shamans in Peru
Time to look at some curanderos. The best part comes after the three-minute mark.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Oct 04, 2008 -
Comments (1)
Category: Medicine, Paranormal, Religion, Foreign Customs, South America
Placenta Facials
CNN reports on some alternative beauty treatments including:A human placenta facial treatment. The beautician who specializes in these notes that people don't get them "because it's hip" but rather because they're concerned about their skin. It certainly isn't hip. It's placenta.
Dehydrated nightingale poop facials. Aesthetician Lula Pacheco reports that at first people are hesitant about the bird poop, but "when it's done they just love how their skin feels and looks."
Other treatments include a "Fanny Facial," a breast message, and an aura lift.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Oct 03, 2008 -
Comments (6)
Category: Hygiene, Medicine
Guess the Scientist!
What famous Victorian-era scientist does this passage describe? (Follow the "extended" link for the answer.)He suffered from incessant retching or vomiting, usually brought on by fatigue; and from painful bouts of wind that churned around after meals and obliged him to sit quietly in a private room until his body behaved more politely. Reading between the lines, his guts were noisy and smelly. "I feel nearly sure that the air is generated somewhere lower down than stomach," he told one doctor plaintively in 1865, "and as soon as it regurgitates into the stomach the discomfort comes on." He was equally forthright with his cousin...: "all excitement & fatigue brings on such dreadful flatulence that in fact I can go nowhere." When he did go somewhere, he needed privacy after meals, "for, as you know, my odious stomach requires that."
He also had trouble with his bowels, frequently suffering from constipation and vulnerable to the obsession with regularity that stalked most Victorians. He developed crops of boils in what he called "perfectly devilish attacks" on his backside, making it impossible to sit upright, and occasional eczema. There were headaches and giddiness. He probably had piles as well.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Alex - Sun Sep 07, 2008 -
Comments (2)
Category: Medicine, Quizzes, Guess the Scientist, Science
Fish Removed From Bladder
An interesting case study is reported in the Internet Journal of Urology (2007, Vol. 4, #2). It's titled "Unusual Foreign Body In Urinary Bladder: A Case Report."
A 14-year-old Indian boy showed up at a hospital complaining of pain and difficulty urinating. He claimed that a fish had lodged itself in his penis. His story, according to the doctors:
While he was cleaning the fish tank in his house, he was holding a fish in his hand and went to the toilet for passing urine. While he was passing urine, the fish slipped from his hand and entered his urethra and then he developed all these symptoms.
Sure enough, he DID have a dead fish in his bladder. Initial attempts to remove it with a biopsy forceps were unsuccessful. The fish was too slippery to grasp onto. But with the help of a rigid ureteroscope they got it out.
The doctors seem a little skeptical of the boy's story. They note that, "Introduction into the bladder may be through self-insertion, iatrogenic means or migration from adjacent organs."
Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 28, 2008 -
Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Medicine
Wire Woman
During the first week wires kept falling off from her body and were gone. A month later, the wires grew back again and from that time onward the wires did not fall. They kept growing! One of her sisters said that she tried to help by trimming the wires. Alas, whenever she trimmed the wires, the wire retreated as if it were hiding and then popped up in another part of Noorsyaidah’s body.
And we've got video of wire woman:
If these "wires" are more like bony growths, then it might be a real medical condition. But if the wires are actually metal, then it's b.s.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Aug 27, 2008 -
Comments (1)
Category: Body Modifications, Medicine, Unsolved Mysteries
The Portland Acupuncture Project
Think of the city as a body the way traditional Chinese medicine does-- not only as a physical entity but also as a system of energy that flows in distinct pathways called meridians. The energy, or Qi, needs to be in balance. If a person's Qi is out of balance, disease can set in. The same could be true for a city. This project explores the junction between art, regional planning, the environment, asian medicine and the health of a city. A single 23 ft tall acupuncture needle was inserted at the South Waterfront for the month of March. A city-wide installation of many such needles is possible in the future.
Kuby has a bunch of photoshopped pictures on his site showing what his project would look like, should it ever be completed.
Some of his other art proposals are interesting. For instance, I like his "Cliff Dwelling" idea, which would involve adding an artificial rock ledge to the side of a skyscraper as a nesting place for peregrine falcons. People could watch the birds from inside the building, but unlike a zoo the birds would be free while the humans would be confined. (Thanks to Cranky Media Guy)
Posted By: Alex - Wed Aug 20, 2008 -
Comments (1)
Category: Art, Medicine, Regionalism
Follies of the Mad Men #7
Sniffles = Death.
Not the most subtle or believable of Madison Avenue appeals. Sure, in that pre-antibiotic age, pneumonia was deadly. But I can't imagine that the proportion of cold-sufferers who contracted pneumonia--at least among the affluent audience for Fortune--was any higher then than it is today. In other words, miniscule.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 31, 2008 -
Comments (8)
Category: Business, Advertising, Insurance, Death, Family, Hygiene, Medicine, Couples
Amazonian Miracle for Sale!
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jul 14, 2008 -
Comments (15)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, History, Inventions, Medicine, Science, Technology, Comics, 1920s
More Muscles than Brains
When I first saw the ad for this device in the pages of Scientific American, I thought it was a joke. But it's true. For only 1.5 times the price of a 2008 Hyundai Accent--a whopping $14,615--you can buy a machine that does everything you can do with a jump rope, two cinder blocks, the branch of a tree and a bicycle tire inner tube.
If you can't wait to purchase it, visit Fast Exercise now.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jul 07, 2008 -
Comments (1)
Category: Business, Products, Inventions, Medicine, Sports, Technology
| Who We Are |
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |