Falsies

Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 20, 2016 - Comments (7)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Body, Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Music

Sanatogen

Full story here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jan 30, 2016 - Comments (6)
Category: Body, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, 1950s, Nineteenth Century

Follies of the Madmen #271

Female sexuality illustrated.

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jan 11, 2016 - Comments (5)
Category: Body, Fashion, Sexuality, Advertising, 1950s, Women

The Tick Tock Man

Sankey Flynn (1918-2001) had an unusual condition. His ears made a ticking sound, about twice every second, which earned him the nickname "Tick Tock." The noise was so loud that other people could easily hear it. It was caused by a "spasmodic contraction of muscles in the roof of his mouth." He never tried to find a cure for his condition because he said he was used to it.

I wonder how the TSA would have reacted to him.

The Waynesville Mountaineer - June 1, 1950

Somerset Daily American - Feb 26, 1951

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jan 10, 2016 - Comments (0)
Category: Body, Human Marvels, 1950s

The Tallest Man

Perhaps you would like to spend some time at The Tallest Man website, which is devoted to giants and giantesses. As a teaser, below are the male and female recordholders from the historical archives.



ROBERT WADLOW



ZENG JINLIAN

Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 09, 2015 - Comments (5)
Category: Body, Freaks, Oddities, Quirks of Nature, Human Marvels

Mao’s Crystal Coffin

Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 28, 2015 - Comments (6)
Category: Body, Celebrities, Death, Politics, 1970s, Asia

Float Nation

Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 07, 2015 - Comments (9)
Category: Body, New Age, Technology

Brains and Bust Size — one medical opinion

Back in 1964, Dr. Erwin O. Strassmann of Houston kicked up a controversy by suggesting there was a correlation in women between bust size and I.Q. And he managed to get his opinion published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Kingsport Times-News - Aug 30, 1964

Curious to see exactly what he said, I tracked down his article. Turns out he was an enthusiastic follower of the now-discredited theory of "constitutional psychology." This was an effort to establish a link between body type and personality traits. Critics have dismissed it as an extended exercise in dressing up cultural stereotypes (such as, if you're overweight, you're lazy) in scientific language. For devotees of weird science, the entire field is a goldmine of strangeness.

Here's the relevant section of Strassmann's 1964 article:




Strassmann, E.O. (1964). "Physique, Temperament, and Intelligence in Infertile Women." International Journal of Fertility. 9:297-314.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 27, 2015 - Comments (12)
Category: Body, Brain, Science, Psychology, 1960s

Father Pierre Monastery Herbs

Original ad.

I wish I could find a picture on the internet of the packaging for this product. Or learn who the legendary Father Pierre was. Alas, even the mighty Web does not have the answer to everything.

But I did find out the ingredients.



As to the recipe's effectiveness, I cannot attest.

Apparently, this current-day Russian product also known as "Monastery Herbs" has a different composition.



"Ingredients: rose hips, currant leaves, birch leaves, roots and rhizomes Elecampane, grass oregano herb St. John's wort, willow (willow-herb)."

Russian page.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 25, 2015 - Comments (7)
Category: Body, Nature, Religion, Advertising, Excrement, 1940s, Russia

Man grows ear on arm

Australian artist Stelarc is growing an ear on his arm. It's been a project of his years in the making. He first got the idea back in 1996, and it took a while to find doctors willing to do the work. But the ear is pretty well formed now. His final goal is to insert a microphone into his arm ear, and then connect the microphone to the internet, so that people around the world can hear through his arm ear.

He says, "People's reactions range from bemusement to bewilderment to curiosity, but you don't really expect people to understand the art component of all of this."



More in extended >>

Posted By: Alex - Tue Aug 11, 2015 - Comments (5)
Category: Body, Body Modifications, Performance Art