I’ve been looking into feng shui lately, specifically the concepts about what makes a person feel more safe or at ease in a space, such as relaxing or sleeping facing the entrance / exit.
While reading, I came across the guidance that you should always shut your toilet seat to prevent your good fortune from being flushed. The real reason you should keep it shut is so it can’t mist shit-water all over your toothbrush every time you flush. Also so your pets don’t drink out of it.
What other things did humans throughout history accidentally get right?
Midwives did not understand germ theory, but still washed their hands and cleaned the delivery areas for delivery due to tradition.
Fun fact:
A Hungarian doctor tried to combine midwife tradition with his knowledge of modern medicine to get even better results. He required his nurses to clean on a regular basis, and required doctors to wash their hands with a chlorine solution before all medical procedures.
The result was a resounding success, with the complication rate as his facility being better than both the midwives and other doctors. However his methods violated social conventions at the time, so he was shunned from society and considered a disgrace. He died in an insane asylum.
Sort of tangential, but Democritus was right about atoms, but obviously he worked it out in a very different way to how modern scientists did — though we don’t know his exact reasoning.
Even more tangential: Aristotle (and others) were wrong about the four elements making all matter, but they do correspond to the four basic states of matter, which is kind of fun: earth=solid, water=liquid, air=gas, fire=plasma.
The use of copper for health purposes. It’s used in UIDs today and is anti parasitic, anti-bacterial, and anti-viral
Pluto was discovered because the orbit of Neptune didn’t match predictions, so astronomers decided that there must be a ninth planet out there. It was very close to where the math predicted it would be.
It turned out later that Pluto was much, much smaller than at first thought, and couldn’t be the 9th planet. It then turned out that the mass of Neptune was greater than expected, and the orbit actually matched expectations without the need for a 9th planet.
Black holes. Predicted in the 1700s using Newtonian gravity. The event horizon diameter even turned it to be right (ie. matches the one predicted by general relativity).
Bloodletting actually has its uses. It’s rare, but a valid treatment. It’s called phlebotomy now, but it’s essentially the same thing.
I don’t remember exactly what the condition was, but I remember my grandfather went through it. Something to do with too much iron.
EDIT:
According to chatgpt, the condition is called hemochromatosis. It matches my grandfather’s description of having high levels of ferritin.Don’t use an AI to answer a simple google question. Not only is it a gross waste of electricity (that Google is hiding from users), but it hallucinates answers all the fucking time. You’re literally better off avoiding that trash.
Not sure if true. But as far as I know acupuncture has been proven to be effective. But you don’t have to hit the magic energy spots you can stick the needles anywhere.
That’s because it’s all placebo effect. That doesn’t make acupuncture effective. Anything you can make someone believe can be just as effective.
