In the episode "HOMR" of the twelfth season of the Simpsons, Homer finds out via a doctor's X-Ray that, when he was a child, he shoved a crayon up his nose and into his head. The crayon had stayed lodged there throughout his entire life, and the pressure it put on his brain accounted for his characteristically low intelligence.
Haha. Ah, the world of animated fiction. Surely nothing like that would ever happen in real life...
BBC: Pencil removed from German's head
A woman in Germany who has spent 55 years with part of a pencil inside her head has finally had it removed.
Margret Wegner fell over carrying the pencil when she was four. It punctured her cheek and part of it went into her brain, above the right eye.
The 59-year-old has suffered headaches and nosebleeds for most of her life.
Life really does imitate art.
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To be wise, observe; for observation is the source of wisdom.
"A wonderful, maaaagical animal!"
To be wise, observe; for observation is the source of wisdom.
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Why the learned pig?
In early 19th-century America, a certain traveling show featured a remarkable pig that, on command, could spell out letters to form words. This "pig of knowledge", or "learned pig", baffled superstitious mobs, and excited frenzied accusations of witchcraft. In response, the pig's trainer published a pamphlet that sought to dispel the rumors by detailing his methods of instruction, and demonstrating that this apparent miracle could be accounted for through reason and observation alone.
Tacitus once wrote, "everything unknown passes for something splendid." Humans by nature desire to know, and when they encounter something seemingly inexplicable, they tend to fill in the holes with religion, superstition, or inane anti-intellectualism that dismisses the need for knowledge altogether. But these are cowardly subsitutes for reason and observation. The learned pig reminds us that if we wish to be wise, "observe; for observation is the source of wisdom."
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