I hope I’m not stealing this from our knitting blogger, but over the past few years, I’ve found some very interesting knitting patterns online. Today I found kniitting patterns for:
•Tuberculosis
•Cholera
•Salmonella
•Common Cold
•Swine Flu
•Penicillium
They’re available on the Manchester Science Festival 2009 blog.
Or if you’re more into knitting body parts, here are a couple for you:
the womb
the gastrointestinal system
One could make a bunch of (very bad) jokes about getting enough fiber into our body, or we can see how we can begin to unravel when we get too stressed, but I’ll avoid those pathetic attempts at humor.
I’m wondering why someone would …read more

Word everywhere is that washing your hands is the key to staying healthy, especially when there are so many bugs and viruses floating around.
Soap and water work great but sometimes you just feel the need to use something a little more potent  – like an alcohol based hand sanitizer.
But there’s a lot of controversy surrounding hand sanitizer products. Some people worry about the effectiveness of them. Others are concerned about the chemicals put in them – chemicals such as the endocrine disruptor Triclosan.
Easier, in some ways, to make your own. That way, you exactly what’s in it.

DIY hand sanitizer recipe
In …read more

Feeling in the need of a little inspiration. Then take some time to watch this couple who are not letting age get in their way of having a good time. This impromptu musical interlude took place at the Mayo Clinic last year.
Vaudeville players back in the 1920’s and 1930’s, it’s easy to see that for Fran & Marlo Cowan (married 62 years), the show still goes on.
Learn more about their story here.
(another great find from  Seeing Good)

Well, here’s your chance…
Have a go at Open Heart Surgery. Definitely not for the faint of heart. With a simulated heart monitor beeping away, the pressure is on to perform. There’s a choice of three levels – intern, surgeon, and specialist. I should have chosen intern but I wanted to be the top gun. Bad move. As a specialist, I killed the patient within seconds. I was advised to ‘call my lawyer’.
Or maybe something a little less challenging – performing open heart surgery on a stuffed bunny . Easy you think! Think again! You have 60 seconds to shock the heart, …read more

These days, you never know what’s around the corner. But the last thing that most of these commuters was expecting was the railway speaker’s blasting out ‘Do-Re-Mi’ from the Sound of Music and seeing, one by one, people joining in and singing and dancing to the music.
But that’s what happened earlier this year at Antwep’s Grand Central Station. Yes, it was a promotional stunt for a reality show. But that doesn’t matter – just think of how many lives it must have brightened up for a minute or two.
(found via Seeing Good)
(image source)

You have to check out this fascinating, funny, and downright bizarre list that Time has put together of Top Ten Non-Emergency 911 Calls.
Here’s a sampling…
A police officer who steals marijuana and gives himself a drug-induced fit of panic  His conversation with the dispatcher: “I think we’re dying. We made brownies, and I think we’re dead. Time is going by really really really really slowly.”  They survived and the  police officer was lucky not to have to do time.
An Ohio man called 911 in May 2009 after his live-in adult son refused to clean his messy bedroom.
An Oregon man called 911 because …read more

Think you know all about baby making?
After all, you know all about the ‘birds and the bees’.  Unfortunately, for some people, baby making’s not that easy. They have to think outside the square and use such methods as fertility drugs, IVF, surrogacy, and maybe even adoption.
But this couple seems to have come up with a unique way of baby making. It’s way out in left field. It will definitely make you laugh.
Â
If only it was that easy for those who have trouble conceiving.

The hospital – Seattle Grace – doesn’t exist and neither does its staff but that’s not stopping them from using the pending nuptials of Dr Derek ‘McDreamy’ Shepard and Dr. Meredith Grey as a fundraiser for a worthy cause.
Actually, it’s a pretty clever idea – creating online wedding registry – that taps the Grey’s Anatomy’s fans into feeling that they are part of the wedding festivities, which allows them to donate in lieu of gifts to one of these three well deserving charities…
- American Academy of Neurology Foundation (ANN)
- Alzheimer’s Association
- American Skin Foundation
When contacted by the producers of Grey’s …read more

Have you heard about The Mensa Invitational ? It’s a ‘play on words’  list that’s been floating around the internet and emails for a few years now.
Each of the words that have had a single letter added, deleted, or to create a new word with a humorous meaning.
Here’s the list so far…
Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject
financially impotent for an indefinite period.
Inoculatte : To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you
realize it was your money to start with.
Reintarnation: Coming back to life as …read more

The Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) is Britain’s national statistical data warehouse. Overall, with lots of coding and numbers indicating who was treated where for what, around all the NHS hospitals around England; it’s pretty dry and boring. But, as The Independent discovered, if you do a little digging around the numbers, you’ll find out that people do the strangest things.
Take for example the gentleman suffering from constipation, who when advised by someone (not a health professional) to take a boiled egg, literally took the boiled egg but not by mouth. Needless to say, when he awkwardly walked into the Emergency …read more