Smoking opium was a widespread practice in Asia over a hundred years ago, but the practice is almost gone today. Almost. Antiques collector Steven Martin, author of the new book Opium Fiend: A 21st Century Slave to a 19th Century Addiction, tells the story of how his research into the opium smoking tools he collected led to his use of the drug itself.

"It took a while to really understand what I had. At first, of course, there were these opium dens in Laos that I could get to quite easily. Vientiane was an overnight train ride from Bangkok, where I was living. I would take tools up to the opium dens and see if the old smokers there knew what they were. Often they did, although they hadn’t seen some of the pieces in years and years. They would show me how a piece was used. For example, a lot of different tools are used as rolling surfaces, as they call them. When you’re preparing opium for a pipe, you form it into a little pellet of opium on the end of the what’s called an opium needle, which is just a skewer, basically, because you can’t work the stuff with your fingers; it’s too hot. There are lots of different tools for rolling the opium pill, as they call it, into the correct shape before inserting it onto the pipe bowl.

That’s why I started hanging out in these opium dens, to learn what I had. Then I started experimenting with the drug. Opium’s really odd. With modern drugs, you take a single hit and you’re hooked for life. You’ll think of nothing else. Opium’s the exact opposite of that. It takes years and years to get addicted. But once it gets its hooks into you, it’s really difficult and painful to get off."

Read more of the story at Collector's Weekly. Link

Artist and writer Alison Wilgus has a collaborative project in which you can help her tell a story about an amnesiac cat. Here's the very beginning:

You are a cat.

You don’t know your name, or where you are, or how you got there. You are sitting on a pile of clothes that smell familiar, and the room around you is quiet and dark.

Things get interesting as "you," the cat, explore the world and try to figure out what's going on. And the artwork is lovely. The story is still in the early stages, and you are invited to submit ideas on what should happen next. Link -via Metafilter

Once again, it's time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog. Can you tell us what this thing is? Or make a wild guess?

Give us your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

For a closer look, and some other mystery items, check out the What Is It? Blog.

Update: the mystery item is a billiard cue lock (you gotta pay if you wanna play). Anker had that one right, and wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop!  The funniest answer cam from Malyss, who described a "manicure manacle:"

It is an extreme manicure manacle. Normally, you would find these in pairs and they would be bolted onto the arms of chairs at a nail salon. The person having the extreme manicure would place their wrists through the manacle and the salon associate would lock the customer's wrists into place before beginning the manicure.

That's good for a t-shirt, too! Thanks to everyone who played, and be sure to check out all the mystery items at the What Is It? blog.

(YouTube link)

The dance is goofy enough when one person does it. The Ohio University Marching 110 performed "Gangnam Style" Saturday before a huge crowd, and nailed it. Do not miss the "elevator scene."  -via Daily Picks and Flicks

September 24th is National Punctuation Day. Happy punctuating! I found this out by visiting Cake Wrecks, where they celebrate every holiday with a cake, or often more than one cake. For National Punctuation Day, they have six cakes and one cake-related sign, all featuring some kind of punctuation gone wrong. Link

When you first look at this movie title, your brain probably says Night of a Thousand Cats. And that's what you should think, because that's what it is supposed to say. But look closer, and you'll realize it says Night of a One Thousand Cats. This brain trick caused by using a numeral instead of a word might explain why this got by all the people involved in manufacturing and marketing the DVD tape, but there are nine other movie typos at Flavorwire that will have you wondering why nobody saw the mistake before the public did. Link

Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss is for TV aficionados and critics. Since 1988, 14 different shows have won the Emmy award for Best Drama. How many of them can you name in five minutes? I got about half of them by naming every series I could think of, including many I've never seen. You will do better! Here's a tip: last night's winner is included. Link

Like grandpa always said, nothing goes together as well as engagement rings and rifles. A jewelry store in Atlanta, Georgia, is offering a sweet package deal if you want both.

D. Geller and Son is giving away a free gun to customers who buy a diamond.

Owner Mike Geller said he got the idea, after seeing a similar offer at a Missouri car dealership.

Geller’s promotion offers a free hunting rifle, if you buy a diamond worth $2,499 or more.

Already, Geller says the offer is generating a lot of buzz.

“It’s unbelieveable!  There’s websites that got a million hits about it,” Geller said.

 “It’s interesting.  It’s appealing to the men, I think” said one Cobb County woman who didn’t think it was a bad idea.

The jewelry store doesn't hand out guns. When you purchase a diamond, you get a voucher and then you must comply with applicable laws when you go to the gun store. Link -via Arbroath

(Image credit: WSB-TV)

(YouTube link)

This educational game has several parts, one in which a rabbit eats your garden up, another where farm animals dance, and one in which pumpkins come in all colors ...possibly because they're in a mushroom field. The company that produces the game only promises to teach your child English words. Teaching them how to be polite about their choices and not eat glass is up to you. You can play the game online. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy

(YouTube link)

Charlie Cavey, the Bin Man, plays "The Bare Necessities" from the safety of a garbage can in Cambridge, England. I would venture to guess that the garbage bin is more for the novelty effect than because of shyness. It's worked for Cavey, who is quite well known. -via The Daily of the Day

Why do you suppose a rooster decided to make his home near a KFC outlet? Was he waiting for the rest of his family to come back out? A local news outlet said the capture was fairly complicated. The animal shelter said if the owner wasn't found, the rooster would be adopted out for just a few dollars. You have to wonder whether KFC made an inquiry. Link -via Criggo

@sirpatstew I've been trying to get TWCable_LA to put CRN Digital Talk Radio back on my service. Been waiting 4 weeks for an answer Terrible

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) September 20, 2012

Captain Kirk and Captain Jean-Luc Picard are battle-hardened warriors who command billion-dollar starships. But neither are a match for the baffling foe that is Time-Warner Cable! The confluence of Tweets was truly epic. I can relate to their frustration ...recently my local cable company sold out to Time-Warner, so I sympathize with both Captains. Link

(YouTube link)

We've had a couple of Glove and Boots videos here before. This one is a bit different, as the puppets Fafa and Mario were recruited to produce a personal marriage proposal. How could any woman resist an engagement ring that sings ...along with a gorilla? -via The Daily What

Inventive, yet under-publicized devices

by Marina Tsipis, Improbable Research staff

U.S. patent #1,799,664, for a “safety drop device for aviators’ use,” was granted to H.W. Williams on April 7, 1931. Here are some of the details:

[A] safety device for use in making a landing from an aeroplane or other vehicle of the air especially in case of mishap to the aeroplane or other air vehicle. The ordinary parachute of umbrella type which requires to be opened out from its collapsed or folded form for a safety descent sometimes fails to open at the critical time. The object of the present invention is to provide a safety landing device which does not require any preliminary opening but is always operative for a gliding descent as soon at it is attached to the body of the user….

[It] somewhat resembles in form the maple key or seed pod of some types of maple trees….

Preparatory to making his descent from the aeroplane, the flyer will place the hooks or loops of the harness under his arms or thrust his arms through the loops to bring them up under his shoulders. When he has fallen a short distance after he releases himself from the aeroplane, the wing will begin to rotate in a plane at right angles to the axis of rotation of the head according to the air currents and he will come down gradually in a gliding or floating descent to the earth rather then by a straight vertical drop. The pressure of the air against the under face of the face of the wing will retard the descent. The spinning movement of the wing in its own plane, that is, the swinging of the wing around the axis of rotation of the head, will steady the descent so that the passenger can remain in an upright position as shown in the drawings during the descent.

(YouTube link)

__________________________

This article is republished with permission from the September-October 2011 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift! Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.

The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Absolutely Absorbing Bathroom Reader.

You've heard of Air Force One, but what do you really know about it? Here's a short history of what's now considered the "flying White House."

HOMEBOUND

Nowadays we take for granted that traveling around the world is part of the president's job. But that wasn't always the case: As late as the 1930s, it was considered the president's duty not to leave the country -he was expected to remain on U.S. soil for his entire term of office ...and wasn't even supposed to stray far from Washington, D.C. This tradition was left over from the pre-telephone age, when the only way a president could command the government on a moment's notice in an emergency was to be physically in or near the nation's capital at all times. Leaving town literally meant leaving power, and presidents aren't supposed to do that. For the first 130 years of the Republic, not a single American president left the United States while in office, not even once. (Well, okay, once. Grover Cleveland briefly sailed across the U.S.-Canada border back in the 1890s.)

So in January 1943, when Franklin Roosevelt flew to North Africa to meet with Winston Churchill and plan the Allied invasion of Southern Europe, he became only the third president to go overseas (the others: cousin Teddy Roosevelt inspected the Panama Canal in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson attended the Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War I).

SMALL WORLD

FDR hated airplanes, but German submarines were patrolling the Atlantic and sinking American ships, so the Secret Service forbade him from traveling by sea. He flew in a chartered PanAm Flying Boat seaplane called the Dixie Clipper. That changed everything.