To induce someone to convert to one’s religious faith

In this religion, it’s called a jedi mind trick

Jerry on Geri Action

This was strangely fascinating to me, mostly because I find it hilarious that they’d each be calling out their own name during sex.

Here’s an extract from the aptly named Jerry O’Connell fansite “jerryoconnellfansite.com”:

No problem for Geri Halliwell’s latest flame, actor Jerry O’Connell – he’s reading a copy of her autobiography to make sure he’s up to speed with her exciting life. Now he can find out all about Geri’s time with the Spice Girls, developing bulimia and losing her virginity to “an ex-public schoolboy with a toffy accent”.

I learned two more things from that extract that I wish I could unlearn.

Watch this space for more on the hottest relationships and breakups that everyone was talking about 10 years ago.

Henry Heimlich – Still alive and resembling a balder, angrier De Niro.

You can listen to the frankly fascinating feature at the link below, or you can read my simply subpar summary below that.

Click here-ish for the full episode

Heimlich lead quite an interesting early life, but I won’t get into it all here. He was a chest surgeon in the navy, who in the early 70s noticed that choking was one of the highest causes of accidental death in the US at the time. There were yet no effective means at the time for preventing this (despite some people’s attempts, including a vacuum-type machine that would suck the food out.) Heimlich realised that there was enough air in the lungs that, if you compressed it, would force the object out of the mouth.

Shouldn’t have eaten that second red arrow.

He tried it out using a dog (get your pitchforks) and a meatball. The first two tries didn’t work, but the third did. The dog went on to have a happy and successful life, but never ate a meatball again. Heimlich’s maneuver gathered some fame when a regional newspaper ran a feature on the procedure and a man who read the article went on to be the first person on record to use it, saving the life of his neighbour’s wife.

Heimlich then began to receive hundreds of letters from people whose lives his maneuver had saved. Some celebrities even wrote in to give their thanks for not choking to death: Cher, Walter Matthau, Carrie Fisher, Goldie Hawn, Liz Taylor and even Ronald Reagan.

So Heimlich prevented the Cold War from ending. Or helped it come to an end. However you want to look at it.

So Heimlich was a national and international hero and was directly responsible for saving thousands of lives. Not bad going. But his story doesn’t end there and it starts to get a bit murky after that. Following the success of the maneuver, he then went on to claim that it could also prevent asthma attacks if applied once a week and even save drowning victims. Both of these uses of the maneuver were very controversial and weren’t widely adopted.

Then, in the early 1980s, Heimlich claimed he’d found a cure for lymes disease, cancer and aids. The cure… malaria. His research was based on that of an Austrian in the early 20th century who ran trials to treat syphillis using malaria.

Heimlich ran some unregulated trials in which he infected Lymes disease patients with malaria in an attempt to cure them. He ran similar trials throughout the 80s and 90s, even travelling to Africa.

Aids researchers were quick to debunk the theory, stating that not only was no scientific evidence of it, but that the treatment could possibly kill you.

His theories lead to a family dispute between him and his two sons, which the podcast delves into, and Heimlich still sticks to his opinions to this day, at the ripe old age of 93. Who knows, maybe he was onto something? Or maybe that’s batshit crazy.

Anyway, interesting stuff.

Apparently, yes.

I think that pull-quote pretty much sums it up. Apparently Spock’s weak point was… elephants.

Leonard Nimoy’s Pet Pad (what a name) also stocked chipmunks, monkeys, crocodiles, boa constrictors, a South American otter and cats and dogs.

EXOTIC cats and dogs, presumably.

I can’t find any sign of whether or not it’s still there, so if someone lives near Canoga Park in the San Fernando Valley, can you go look for me please?

Fear or a phobia concerning the number 13.

She constantly regretted her choice of wallpaper

No, St Patrick didn’t drive them out (nor the snakes, as I found out last year), apparently they never made it there at all. Here’s Professor Ian Montgomery from Queen’s University to explain:

“The origin of the Irish mammal fauna is very interesting because the major process is one of glaciation.

“During the last ice age, most parts of Ireland were covered, as was Britain, and as the ice retreated animals from the south moved northwards.

“They moved through continental Europe. They got into Britain, but they didn’t get into Ireland because the sea level rose too quickly.

“As a result, Ireland was left without moles, whereas moles managed to get into Britain.”

He goes on to say that we’re actually missing out on loads of brilliant animals in Ireland, like weasels, some bats and the pygmy shrew. It’s why David Attenborough never comes to visit.

Another side-effect of not having any moles is that there’ll never be an Irish remake of Infernal Affairs/The Departed.

“You are an excellent employee and I trust you implicitly”

Quotes from the BBC

Finally, a name for Patrick Stewart’s new movie: