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What should you do after being bitten by a venomous snake? I applaud the quality of Kat's research and think it is wonderful that this forum exists for sharing our knowledge. On matters such as these, where lives are concerned, we of course must rely upon the sources we locate and then use our common-sense: mine was Australian-based. Australian sites certainly do not suggest suction, as seen at:...

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What should you do after being bitten by a venomous snake? You should certainly not suck the venom out of a snake bite, for two reasons. Firstly, if the person taking such an action has a cut on or in their mouth, or a decayed tooth, the venom will enter their body. Secondly, as not infrequently happens, the venom left at the bite site can assist with identification of the snake. Snake bites can happen so quickly: victims are often unable to identify...

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What is the origin of the phrase "cock and bull story"? Perhaps there is no identifiable origin, but I suggest that this saying is much older than it appears. Witty sayings of this nature indubitably circulated orally for any amount of time before they were recorded or used in a written way: this one could be anywhere between 700 or 2000 years old. (I suscribe to the Ancient Greek or Roman theory.) A number of 17th century English proverbs refer to...

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What economic and political penalties (i.e. embargoes, rights to bear arms, etc.) were imposed on Germany after starting both WWI and WWII? How did these compare with those imposed on Italy and Japan? This sounds like a question for 1st year History students! The penalties after WW1 included loss of territory, loss of the right to 'arm' an army and payment of crippling reparation. Such punitive measures angered many German citizens, and particularly irked a little Austrian corporal named Adolf. While Japan was similarly barred from arming other than the essentials for self-defence...

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How can I train myself to achieve a specific brain frequency (i.e., Theta, Delta, Beta, etc.) at will? Become a Buddhist! Studies on some Buddhist monks engaging in Zen meditation have shown altered levels. One study produced astonishing results; the monk concerned was quite young. I can't remember the name of that one or other studies, though - find a friend with access to an academic e-library and just enter 'altered Beta levels' or 'Zen meditation' in the search...

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What is 'deja vu' exactly, and what explanations are out there that account for why people experience it? The deja-vu phenomenen is just that: a strange but by no means rare occurrence in which a person has a sensation of having been in a particular situation before. The English poet Tennyson expressed the idea beautifully in 'Locksley Hall' when he spoke of a feeling that reminded him 'of something done, of something shared, of something said, I know not where, such as no mortal can...

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What is the superstition behind Friday the 13th? This superstition is not just Christian: it appears in Norse mythology, and also in 'Pagan' ideas. Check out Ronald Hutton for the latter, he may mention it in 'The Ritual Year in England' but certainly in 'The Stations of the Sun'. Hutton is brilliant for information on the history of many ideas that we might consider Christian, and shows the way in which...

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Where does the custom of saying "God bless you" after a sneeze come from? Willie's answer is the most informed here. Historic mentions of this saying are certainly frequent from the time of the Black Death. I suggest though that it may have been more associated with one of the more lethal forms of plague: the pneumonic form. Some people recovered from 'ordinary' plague and thus built immunity to it. However, once a person developed the early...

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