now that's what I call history

From our good friends at the Woot Blog comes this little gem called Vickipedia . Which posts excerpts from the 1888 Chambers's Encyclopedia of Universal Knowledge. I especially liked this post on HYSTE'RIA.

Hysteria is a very troublesome affection to deal with, because it is very readily induced by example, or, as Dr. Watson terms it, is propagable by moral contagion. If, in a hospital ward or in a factory where many young women are congregated, one girl goes off in a fit, all the others who may happen to have a hysterical tendency will probably follow her example. In such cases, a decided order that the next girl who is attacked shall be treated with the actual cautery, or even with the cold affusion, will often have a marvelous effect in checking the spread of the disorder.

Right now the PC police are twitching without knowing why.

You want fries with that?

2 Years ago today the House of Representatives passed the “cheeseburger bill” which bans lawsuits that blame fast food chains for making people fat or otherwise unhealthy.

A quick yahoo search failed to turn up any mention if the bill ever made it past the Senate.

Barbie

In 1959 Barbie was launched at the American Toy Fair. Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler believed that the doll could help girls build self-esteem. The doll was modeled on a German doll named Lilli who was a street-walker.

Some Barbie fun facts can be found here

AOhell

On this date in 2003 AOL reports blocking a record 1 billion spam emails in 24 hours, which is roughly equal to the number of unsolicited disks they have mailed out over the years.