Sunday, July 17, 2011

I did not know that...

  1. Space probe Dawn has gone into orbit around the asteroid Vesta. Unlike every space probe before it, which were all just free-falling through the solar system like pachinko balls depending on trajectories and inertia and suchlike, this one will orbit its target for a year taking pictures and doing science-y stuff, and then it will fire up its little ion drive, going to three-quarters impulse power, and head off to go orbit a different asteroid. That's pretty cool right there. If you're going to set my tax money on fire, do it with an ion drive, okay?

  2. There is actually a plant whose toxic sap is a folk cure for removing warts and actinic keratosisises? Really? And I paid $90+ for a tube of goo to do the same thing? As fair-skinned as I am, I am seriously considering ordering some seeds online.

8 comments:

PT said...

Um, actinic keratosis is low grade skin cancer. I'd trust the super industrial stuff that melts your skin off that the dermatologist recommends for that.

Tam said...

I know.

Interestingly, there's a skin cancer drug in development made from radium weed sap...

Mikael said...

Cool people treat skin cancer with liquid nitrogen, just saying.

Also, pardon the pun, it was accidental, but once realized I just had to leave it in there.

Tam said...

Not when it's on the cool person's nose, they don't. ;)

treefroggy said...

I thought it said Euphoria Purpelus, the cure for that musical malignancy, also known as Prince.

Damn, I need new glasses.

Phssthpok said...

Why buy Compound-W (Active ingredient: salicylic acid) when you can use White Willow bark (a natural source of salicin which the body converts into salicylic acid)?

(whodathunk I'd be a gear-head and naturopathic druggie all rolled up into one?)

Anonymous said...

Just wait until the FDA finds out about it. They will screw it up just like they did to red yeast rice. Got to keep pharma happy and sole source.

Terry

Anonymous said...

White Vinegar works on simple warts quite well. I use it on my kids. Soak a the gauze of a bandaid in vinegar apply and change 2x/day until gone.