Disce aut discede

"Learn or leave" - a good motto for a school.

Image: The Royal College of Columbo in Sri Lanka.  The motto is also used at other schools.

Packing a wound with peppercorns

Sounds like a medieval torture, but it apparently has been conventional folk medicine practice for centuries, including at the first Indianapolis 500 race, as reported in the June issue of the Smithsonian magazine:

Taken to a local hospital, the men involved in the incident at mile 240 were found to have serious but not life-threatening injuries... After being carried to the enclosure, Greiner had likely received the standard Speedway hospital treatment: his wounds packed with black peppercorns to deter infection and bandaged with bed linen donated by local citizens. He had probably been given a few stiff belts of rye whiskey as well; he seemed serene and reflective... 

A quick search revealed a reference to pepper in wounds in volume 42 of The Sacred Books of the East:

"The pepper-corn cures the wounds that have been struck by missiles, it also cures the wounds from stabs.  Anent it the gods decreed: 'Powerful to secure life this (plant) shall be!'"

And from Wikipedia:

Black peppercorns were found stuffed in the nostrils of Ramesses II, placed there as part of the mummification rituals shortly after his death in 1213 BCE... 

And a final footnote:

It is commonly believed that during the Middle Ages, pepper was used to conceal the taste of partially rotten meat. There is no evidence to support this claim, and historians view it as highly unlikely: in the Middle Ages, pepper was a luxury item, affordable only to the wealthy, who certainly had unspoiled meat available as well. In addition, people of the time certainly knew that eating spoiled food would make them sick.

Photo credit Sage Ross.

It's Almost Time For Fall Decorating and Fall Craft Projects From The Best Free Craft Articles Blog Contributors

We're almost at my favorite time of the year  - FALL!   Time to dust off all my scarecrows, pumpkins, ghosts, witches, goblins, and pilgrims.  I can hardly wait.

Why?

Well, I just LOVE to decorate for the Fall season.

So,  I thought you might like to decorate for the Fall like I do. Here's all the wonderful free FALL decorating articles, e-patterns, tutorials, graphics, stitcheries, craft projects and more from The Best Free Craft Articles blog contributors:

Please respect each artist or crafters Terms Of Use for their free article.

I'm so excited. I just LOVE the Fall Season.

General Electric moves its xray business to China

As noted at the Cafferty File:

"...this move is just part of a broader plan by GE to invest $2 billion in China. This will become the first GE business to be headquartered there. A handful of the unit's top executives will be transferred to China but otherwise, the company says, none of the 150 staffers in the Milwaukee-area facility will lose jobs or be transferred. However, GE plans to hire more than 65 engineers and a support staff at a new facility in China.

It's the kind of news that makes you want to reach for something sharp and jab it in your eye. General Electric's Chief Executive, Jeffrey Immelt, is one of President Obama's advisers on… ready? U.S. job creation!

"Curvy"

A flash game in which you convert a pattern such as the top one into the bottom one, by clicking on the hexagons to rotate them.  Each pattern appears to have a unique solution.  I found it to be interesting, but frankly not very challenging.

The images above are only embeds; the game is at this link.  Via Neatorama.

A very disturbing video

 

LiveLeak link. 

The incident that happens at 1:30 appears inadvertent, but the response is inappropriately cavalier.  And the child's morbid obesity suggests an ongoing problem with nutrition.  I feel like I'm watching child abuse.

Via Nothing To Do With Arbroath.

A Spanish "can of worms"

"...it's baby eels in garlic oil. Except it's fake baby eels - producto de la pesca transformado - it's a surimi product (like crab sticks) - white fish processed with egg and milk protein - in this case, into little wormy shapes..."

More pix and text at Atomic Shrimp, with a hat tip to Amy.