My wife called my attention to some very amusing videos on YouTube about homeschooling. I clicked through several and saw a lot of great stuff. Check this out:
I had no idea that you could use economic theory to help you write poetry, but it appears that you can.
HT to YORF for this one. It appears that medical researchers have begun looking into the side-effects of sword swallowing. This authors must have been laughing hysterically as they wrote the paper:
We excluded cases in which injury was related to swallowing items other than swords, such as glass, neon tubes, spear guns, or jack hammers.
Ouch.
Some let the sword fall abruptly, a manoeuvre known as "the drop," controlling the fall of the sword with the muscles of the pharynx, and some invite members of the audience to move the sword.
Shivers. I don't think I'll take that up as a hobby.
On a more serious note, there was a comment on the paper which I thought was very interesting for medical science:
Having recently undergone an extremely uncomfortable endoscopic exploration of my own oesophagus and stomach I have learned that I have a small hiatus hernia. This perhaps explains why I still have ‘the worst’ acid reflux despite my religious use of esomeprazole 40mg and an array of ‘lifestyle’ measures. I read the sword- swallowing article with great interest especially the discussion on how sword swallowers must train themselves to voluntarily exert control over normally involuntarily controlled sphincters. I wonder if sword swallowers could teach GORD (gastrooesophageal reflux disease) sufferers to control their lower oesophageal sphincter thereby giving themselves relief of sometimes very resistant symptoms?
Very interesting indeed.