People passing by or entering Ørestad High School will get a real surprise: a giant breast with milk progressively flowing out of the nipple is hung in the entrance hall. This immense (the balloon is 9 meters of diameter) and fascinating video-installation, called Venus of Willendorf, is the last creation of the Danish-Argentinean couple Venus of Willendorf, which is at once entertaining and deeply meaningful.

From the website of Hilden Diaz 

Secret Materials

Recently, the New York Times had a piece on terrorists trying to find something called red mercury.

‘In previous generations,

old women wore it in a

necklace to keep the devil’s

eye away,’ one smuggler said.

And in Game of Thrones, we see wildfire, a substance based on Greek fire, a legendary Byzantine weapon.

‘Piss on wildfire and your cock burns off’

All of this is akin to aurum potabile--the never-found philosopher's stone.

Medieval Poisons

See THIS POST ON IT

And THIS ONE

Wine Design

From Designboom 

From Uncommonstudio

From HERE

An Art Historical Tour of Absinthe

On a trip to the Netherlands, I bought a tiny bottle of absinthe. My roommates and friends would have none of it. And honestly, I found it pretty foul. But I could no longer stand the taste of licorice after buying Dutch Drop Mentos--a compilation of mint and licorice that seems to be a regional delicacy:

Nonetheless, absinthe has always been advertised as an intoxicating and creativity-inspiring spirit due to its art historical past, especially with Van Gogh. It doesn't hurt that Poppy Z. Brite sprinkled references to it throughout her goth fiction anthology Wormwood and Nine Inch Nails featured it in their video for Perfect Drug.

Absinthe is distilled from wormwood, anise, fennel, and god knows what else. It's often green, which is why it (and/or its effects) are referred to as "the green fairy."

But much of the mythology started with painters. Which now leads to crap like this, obviously based on his most famous self portrait and reports of his imbibing:

But Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Van Gogh, among others, depicted the beverage:

Toulouse-Lautrec

Van Gogh

Privat-Livemont

Oliva

Maignon

More on Pee!

See a translation of an early early modern urine wheel here.

Reproduction Wheaton Medicine Bottles

Straubmuller Elixir: Tree of Life

and

Indian Vegetable Jaundice Bitters

Chief Wahoo's Electric Tonic

Pick your Poison, Honey

Ganked from the Guardian History of Science blog.

Originally from a copy of Ibn Butlan's The Maintenance of Health printed around 1531 by Johann Schott in Strassburg.

Also used in the Slades!

Antique Embalming Fluid