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From the Deceased Wife’s Sister’s Marriage Act 1907 wiki article:

The Deceased Wife’s Sister’s Marriage Act 1907 (7 Edw.7 c.47) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, allowing a man, if his wife had died, to marry her sister.

Previously, it was forbidden for a man to marry the sister of his deceased wife. This prohibition derived from a doctrine of Canon Law whereby those who were connected by marriage were regarded as being related to each other in a way which made marriage between them improper. This doctrine was reflected in the Table of kindred and affinity in the Anglican (Church of England) Book of Common Prayer. Prohibition of marriage between certain degrees of kindred outlawed what is known as incest; prohibition between degrees of relationship by marriage (affinity) as opposed to blood (consanguinity) seems to have reflected an analogous taboo. At least one novel, Felicia Skene’s The Inheritance of Evil; Or, the Consequences of Marrying a Deceased Wife’s Sister addressed the topic in polemic fictional form.

Under ecclesiastical law, a marriage within the prohibited degrees was not absolutely void but it was voidable at the suit of any interested party. For this reason, Charles, the younger brother of Jane Austen, was able to marry his deceased wife’s sister in 1820 and to remain married to her until he died in 1852. The Marriage Act 1835, however, hardened the law into an absolute prohibition (whilst, however, authorising any such marriages which had already taken place), so that such marriages could no longer take place in the United Kingdom and colonies at all (in Scotland they were prohibited by a Scottish Marriage Act of 1567). Such marriages from that date had to take place abroad: see, for example, William Holman Hunt and John Collier, both painters, who married the sisters of their deceased wives in Italy and in Norway respectively. However, this was only possible for those who could afford it.

The desire of widowed men to marry the sister of their deceased wife became the subject of particular agitation from the 1860s onwards and strong feelings were roused on both sides. However, it was to be nearly 50 years before the campaign for a change in the law was successful, despite the introduction of draft legislation in Parliament on many occasions. The lengthy nature of the campaign was referred to in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera Iolanthe, in which the Queen of the Fairies sings “He shall prick that annual blister, marriage with deceased wife’s sister”.

The Deceased Wife’s Sister’s Marriage Act 1907 removed the prohibition (although it allowed individual clergy, if they chose, to refuse to conduct marriages which would previously have been prohibited), but the Act did exactly what it said and no more so, for example, it was not until 1921 that the Deceased Brother’s Widow’s Marriage Act 1921 was passed. The Marriage (Prohibited Degrees) Relationship Act 1931 extended the operation of the 1907 Act to allow the marriages of nieces and nephews by marriage as well.

The Deceased Brother’s Widow’s Marriage Act (Northern Ireland) 1924 was passed to remove doubts as to the application of the Deceased Brother’s Widow’s Marriage Act, 1921, to Northern Ireland.

From the Walter Freeman wiki article:

Dr. Walter Jackson Freeman II (November 14, 1895 – May 31, 1972) was an American physician. He is mainly remembered as a prolific lobotomist^[1] and an advocate of psychosurgery.

Freeman performed nearly 3500 lobotomies in 23 states, mostly based on scanty and flimsy evidence for its scientific basis^[2][3], but more significantly he popularized the lobotomy. A neurologist without surgical training, he initially worked with several surgeons, including James W. Watts. In 1936, he and Watts became the first American doctors to perform prefrontal lobotomy (by craniotomy in an operating room).

Seeking a faster and less invasive way to perform the procedure, Freeman adopted Amarro Fiamberti’s transorbital lobotomy and began to perfect it, initially by using ice picks hammered into each frontal lobe through the back of each eye socket (”ice pick lobotomy”). Freeman was able to perform these very quickly, outside of an operating room, and without a surgeon. For his first transorbital lobotomies, Freeman used an actual icepick from his kitchen. Later, he utilized an instrument created specifically for the operation called a leucotome. In 1948 Freeman developed a new technique which involved wrenching the leucotome in an upstroke after the initial insertion. This procedure placed great strain on the instrument and in one case resulted in the leucotome breaking off in the patient’s skull. As a result, Freeman designed a new, stronger instrument, the orbitoclast.

Freeman embarked on a national campaign in his van which he called his “lobotomobile” to demonstrate the procedure to doctors working at state-run institutions; Freeman would show off by icepicking both of a patient’s eyesockets at one time – one with each hand.^[3] According to some, institutional care was hampered by lack of effective treatments and extreme overcrowding, and Freeman saw the transorbital lobotomy as an expedient tool to get large populations out of treatment and back into private life.

The “ice pick lobotomy” was, according to Ole Enersen, performed by Freeman “with a recklessness bordering on lunacy, touring the country like a travelling evangelist. In most cases,” Enersen continued, “this procedure was nothing more than a gross and unwarranted mutilation carried out by a self righteous zealot.”^[4]

Freeman’s most notorious operation was on the ill-fated Rosemary Kennedy, who was permanently incapacitated by a lobotomy at age 23. Another of his patients, Howard Dully has now written a book called My Lobotomy about his experiences with Freeman and his long recovery after the surgery he underwent at 12 years old.^[5]

With the advent of antipsychotic drugs, notably Thorazine, in the mid-1950s, lobotomy fell out of favor as a treatment, and Freeman saw his reputation crumble quickly. His license to practice medicine was revoked when a patient he was lobotomizing died. He continued to drive cross country in his “lobotomobile” to visit his former patients until his death from cancer in 1972.

From the Mutton busting wiki page:

Mutton busting is an event held at rodeos similar to bull riding or bronc riding. In the event, a sheep will be caught and held still while a child is placed on top in a riding position. Once the child is seated atop the sheep, the people holding the sheep let go and the sheep then starts to run in an attempt to get the child off. Often small prizes or ribbons are given out to the child who can stay on the longest.

The children are on occasion injured by the sheep. Height and weight restrictions on participants generally prevent injuries to the sheep.^[1] Parents are often asked to sign waivers to protect the rodeo from legal action in that event. Anti-rodeo groups such as SHARK describe the practice as child abuse. Organizations such as the ASPCA also discourage the practice on the grounds that it does not promote kindness or respect of animals.^[2]

From the Wrestling Boot Band wiki page:

The Wrestling Boot Band, also known as the Wrestling Boot Traveling Band, was a musical group fronted by Hulk Hogan, which also included “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart, Hogan’s wife (Linda), and John Maguire. They released one album, Hulk Rules, in 1995 under the name “Hulk Hogan and the Wrestling Boot Band.” Hulk Rules rose into the Top Ten on Billboard’s children’s chart, despite the negative feedback from critics.^[1]

Hulk Rules

Hulk Rules includes songs in the genres of rock, pop, rap and other genres.

The song “American Made” was used as Hogan’s theme song in World Championship Wrestling for a while. According to Hogan, “Hulkster in Heaven” was written in 1992 in honor of a Make-A-Wish Kid whom Hogan had invited to sit ringside at a show in the UK.^[2] When Hulk went out to wrestle, he saw that the seat was empty.^[2] Later, he was informed that the child had died before the match had begun.^[2] The lyric “Guess there’ll be an empty seat when I wrestle at Wembley,” was direct result of the situation. Proceeds from the album went to help the young boy’s family, who was having trouble paying the medical bills.^[3]

That night, Hogan and Jimmy Hart wrote several songs for the album.^[3] Hogan let his wife Linda sing back up vocals on a couple of the songs because, according to him, she sounded better than “the rest of the stuff.”^[3]

From the Ayds wiki page:

Ayds (pronounced as “aids”) was an appetite-suppressant candy which enjoyed strong sales in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was available in chocolate, chocolate mint, butterscotch or caramel flavors, and later a peanut butter flavor was introduced. The original packaging used the phrase “Ayds Reducing Plan vitamin and mineral Candy”; a later version used the phrase “appetite suppressant candy”. The active ingredient was originally benzocaine^[1] later changed in the candy as reported by The New York Times to phenylpropanolamine, presumably to reduce the sense of taste to reduce eating.^[2]

However, public awareness of the disease AIDS beginning around mid-1981 caused problems for the brand due to the phonetic similarity of names. Initially sales were not affected, but by 1988 the chairman of Dep Corporation announced that the company was seeking a new name because sales had dropped as much as 50 percent due to publicity about the disease.^[3] The product’s name was changed to Diet Ayds (Aydslim in Britain), but eventually it was withdrawn from the market.

Videos of old Ayds television commercials have enjoyed a resurgence of popularity on Internet video sites for the unintentional dark humor from the association with the wasting associated with HIV infection (for example, Ayds helps you lose weight or Why take diet pills when you can enjoy Ayds? or even Thank Goodness for Ayds).

From the Urine therapy wiki article:

In alternative medicine, the term urine therapy (also urotherapy, urinotherapy or uropathy) refers to various applications of human urine for medicinal or cosmetic purposes, including drinking of one’s own urine and massaging one’s skin with one’s own urine. A practitioner of urine therapy is sometimes called a uropath. There is no scientific evidence of a therapeutic use for urine. A chemical component of urine, urea, does have some well known commercial and other uses.

History

Rome

In Roman times, there was a tradition among the Gauls to use urine to whiten teeth. A famous poem by the Roman poet Catullus, criticizing a Gaul named Egnatius, reads:^[6][7]

“Egnatius, because he has snow-white teeth, / smiles all the time. If you’re a defendant / in court, when the counsel draws tears, / he smiles: if you’re in grief at the pyre / of pious sons, the lone lorn mother weeping, / he smiles. Whatever it is, wherever it is, / whatever he’s doing, he smiles: he’s got a disease, / neither polite, I would say, nor charming. / So a reminder to you, from me, good Egnatius./ If you were a Sabine or Tiburtine / or a fat Umbrian, or plump Etruscan, / or dark toothy Lanuvian, or from north of the Po, / and I’ll mention my own Veronese too, / or whoever else clean their teeth religiously, / I’d still not want you to smile all the time: / there’s nothing more foolish than foolishly smiling. / Now you’re Spanish: in the country of Spain / what each man pisses, he’s used to brushing / his teeth and red gums with, every morning, / so the fact that your teeth are so polished / just shows you’re the more full of piss./”

From the Namahage wiki article:

Namahage (生剥^?) is a Japanese ritual which is observed throughout Oga Peninsula, Akita Prefecture in northern Honshū, Japan. It is said^{[citation needed]} to have originated as a ritual for cleansing people’s souls, and for blessing the new year. It is a kind of toshigami.

On New Year’s Eve, a group of young men dressed up as fierce demons or bogeymen, Namahage, visit each house in the village, shouting: “any misbehaving kids live here?” They then scare children in the houses, telling them not to be lazy or cry, though little children often do burst into tears. Then the parents will assure the Namahage that there is no bad child in their house, and give food or traditional Japanese alcoholic beverages to the demons.

An obvious purpose of the festival is to encourage young children to obey their parents and to behave, important qualities in Japan’s heavily structured society.

From the Clear-channel station wiki article:

In the Bahamas, Canada, Mexico, and the United States, a clear-channel station is an AM radio station which is given extraordinary protection from interference to its nighttime signal.

Certain mediumwave frequencies were set aside under the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA for short) for nighttime use by only one or two specific AM stations, covering a wide area via skywave propagation; these frequencies were known as the clear channels, and the stations on them are thus clear-channel stations. Where only one station was assigned to a clear channel, the treaty provides that it must operate with a nominal power of 50 kilowatts or more; stations on the other clear channels, with two or more stations, must use between 10 and 50 kW, and most often use a directional antenna so as not to interfere with each other. In addition to the frequencies, the treaty also specified the specific locations where stations on this second kind of channel (known as class I-B) could be built.

Clear-channel stations, unlike all other AM stations in North America, have a secondary service area—that is, they are entitled to protection from interference to their nighttime skywave signals. Other stations are entitled, at most, to protection from nighttime interference in their primary service area—that which is covered by their groundwave signal.

WABC, a 50,000-watt clear-channel station, could be heard clearly in 38 states, and as far as Africa’s Atlantic coast.^[8]

From the Paul Is Dead wiki article:

Paul is dead” is an urban legend alleging that Paul McCartney of The Beatles died in 1966 and was replaced by a look-alike and sound-alike.

The first known printing of this urban legend was in the Drake University paper, the Times-Delphic, on September 17, 1969. The rumours surrounding McCartney began in earnest on October 12, 1969, when someone telephoned Russ Gibb (a radio DJ on WKNR-FM in Dearborn, Michigan serving the Detroit market). Identifying himself as “Tom” (allegedly Tom Zarski^[1] of Eastern Michigan University), the caller announced that McCartney was dead. He also asked Gibb to play “Revolution 9” backwards. Gibb thought he heard “Turn me on, dead man.“^[2]

The most common tale is that on Wednesday, 9 November 1966 at 5 am, McCartney, while working on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, stormed out of a recording session after an argument with the other Beatles and rode off in his Austin-Healey which he subsequently crashed into a lamp post, and died.^[6]

The story was pieced together from the lyrics of multiple Beatles songs. The most common narrative includes the following pieces of evidence^{[citation needed]}:

1. “He didn’t notice that the lights had changed” (”A Day in the Life“).
2. He then crashed into a lamp-post (a car crash sound is heard in “Revolution 9” and “A Day in the Life”).
3. He was pronounced dead on a “Wednesday morning at 5 o’clock as the day begins” (”She’s Leaving Home“)
4. Nobody found this out because the news was withheld: “Wednesday morning papers didn’t come” (”Lady Madonna“).
5. A funeral procession was held days later, as was supposedly implied on the Abbey Road album cover by the Beatles’ clothing. (John Lennon dressed all in white, like a clergyman. Ringo Starr wore a black suit, like an undertaker, and George Harrison dressed in blue jeans, symbolising a gravedigger. Paul McCartney wore a blue suit without shoes, and walked out of step with the other Beatles.
6. Adding fuel to the legend is the ending of “Strawberry Fields Forever“. Some believed John said “I buried Paul” in a slow deep voice over the final refrain. He later said the phrase is actually “cranberry sauce“.

According to believers, McCartney was replaced with the winner of a McCartney look-alike contest. The name of this look-alike has been recorded as William Shears Campbell, Billy Shears (the name of the fictitious leader of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band), William Sheppard (based on the alleged inspiration for the song “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill“), or some combination of the names.^[10]

McCartney has said about the rumor: “Anyway all of the things that have been, that have made these rumors, to my mind have very ordinary, logical explanations. To the people’s minds who prefer to think of them as rumors, then I am not going to interfere, I am not going to spoil that fantasy. You can think of it like that if you like. However, if the end result, the conclusion you reach is that I am dead, then you are wrong, because I am very much alive, I am alive and living in Scotland.”^[11]

From the Electroejaculation wiki page:

Electroejaculation is a procedure used to obtain semen samples from sexually mature male mammals. The procedure is applied for breeding programs and research purposes in various species, as well as in the treatment of anejaculation and ejaculatory dysfunction in human males.

Electroejaculation is usually carried out under a general anesthetic. An electric probe is inserted into the rectum adjacent to the prostate. The probe delivers a slight electric current that stimulates nearby nerves, resulting in contraction of the pelvic muscles and ejaculation. This procedure is used frequently with large mammals, particularly bulls and some domestic animals, as well as humans who have certain types of paralysis or erectile dysfunction.