Howie, Research might be my middle name. Allegedly, fire was one of man's earliest discoveries, some time in the early stone age. The earliest known site is in Israel and dates back 790,000 years but this is thought to be unuual and that habitual use of fire didn't hapen until around 400,000 years ago.
They've looked very hard but still can't find the matches lol.
Hehe this is the kind of thing I think about too. Then sometimes I say it out loud at work and my colleagues give me weird looks (admittedly they already think I'm strange).
I've often wondered who found that some mushrooms were edible. They look funny and a lot of them are most definitely not edible. And what did they see when they tried the 'sort-of wrong' ones? (The wrong ones being the ones that just kill you, as opposed to giving you interesting dreams.)
Nice one Howie. Been thinking about coat hangers and you're right - can't ever recall hearing about the manufacture of coat hangers, or seeing a job making them advertised! Perhaps they are inported...
I have often wondered how people in the past found out which medicines worked for which part of the body. Suck it and see??
I think 'suck it and see' is about right, especially for the Victorians! They seem to have turned absolutely everything into a patent medicine. I have a book called The Elements of Murder which is the story of poisonous elements (arsenic, mercury, antimony, lead, thallium are the main ones) and I don't think there was a single one of them that hadn't been used as a medicine at some point - it was what let some murderers get away with it, because they could say their victim had been taking the substance as medicine (frequently for symptoms which the medicine/poison tended to cause!). Their mistake was usually trying the same thing too often.
Having said that, some of them may have had some real therapeutic benefit. Arsenic is used today as a treatment for some forms of leukaemia (I learned this from watching House, but having researched it a bit further they know what they're on about).
Sorry, I get a little too interested in this topic - from a curiosity/academic point of view of course
Many thanks
Many thanks to all replies. Its comforting to know im not a fruit loop (well, not all the time anyway) & other people occasionally peruse the aforementioned sujects.
A big thankyou to granny mo the toothpaste question has finally been answered!!
Also, Annista has gone to great lengths re fire (dont suppose they found a bic lighter)
Philomela, likeing the suck it an see
But am now wondering, who tried out the first parachute? That must have been a true leap of faith. Like if someone gave you a big piece of cloth, took you really high up then said go on, jump, youll be fine!! Would you?
So many pointless questions spinning around in my head.
Within moments of answering one, another one pops up!
Oh yes, re poisons becoming meds, isnt wharfarin (rat poison) used to thin blood
I have this feeling that the first parachutist was probably someone who REALLY annoyed everyone else in the balloon and was chucked over the side with nothing but a large handerkerchief to slow his descent .......
Also, who first drank cows/goats milk and WHY?
Warfaring is a rat poison, howie. I tend to wonder about daft phrases and who came up with them first. Like 'How long is a piece of string?' or 'Do you think I came up the Clyde on a water biscuit?'
penicillin is a yukky mould, yet a fantastic antibiotic... unless ur allergic!
where would we all be without facebook!
x
Didn't Adam name the animals (as in Adam & Eve!) : {
S.Mama
Who invented bungee-jumping?!
Not that it's at all related, but at work we have a kind of e-noticeboard where people put up things for sale and today I noticed someone was selling an inflatable T-Rex, described as 'well-behaved'. I found this amusing and wanted to share.
Annista, maybe someone tried a baby on cow's/goat's milk in desperation when its mother died and no-one else was around who could give it milk? Just a theory! I know that at least in the West, we've mostly adapted to lactose - lactose intolerance was once much more common but (I believe because of agriculture, or at least the particular way we developed it in the western hemisphere) we adapted to be able to drink cow's milk.
Philomena, that makes sense to me. Personally, I can't bear cow juice - I'm just slightly intolerant and happy to steer clear.
I think New Zealand claims to be the home of bungee jumping, but again you have to wonder what the thought process was.
Grannymo, I've never heard the one about coming up the Clyde on a water biscuit, it's great! I've always wondered who came up with 'well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs', which I'd never heard until I was about 24. The same person also used to say 'I'm not so green as I'm cabbage looking' in such a fabulous accent that it always made me smile.
I think it's because New Zealand has a lot of places were people do it. And they like to call themselves the ""Adventure Sports Capital of the World""
Having been there, I must be inclined to agree. I did some nutty things while there,
Obviously the place to head for if I want to do something crazy! Though not scuba-diving, they're apparently very strict over there about asthma and scuba-diving.
Who (specifically) invented the bagpipes, and why? To scare off marauding Vikings?(I think someone on here plays the bagpipes so will probably get an earful from them soon. I can't really talk as I play(ed) the oboe which can be just as bad.)
how come no matter how much you chew sweetcorn it doesnt digest
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the toothpaste question has finally been answered!!
Coming off Montelukast 
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