Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Inventions: Old, New, and Evil!


A printer that prints human skin! For real!

A compact semi-submarine. Great for all sorts of perfectly legal activities!

A device that lets you control your iPad . . . with brainwaves! And it's totally safe! Mmmmhmmm.

Elephant poo gifts for your favorite friends and loved ones!

And a "scold's bridle" (shown above). State-of-the-art 16th century technology for dealing with quarrelsome women. (Boy, I would have been in BIG trouble back then.) Similar devices were used in parts of Europe until the 18th century.

12 comments:

Holy Lucy, Batman! said...

Omo (oh my object) I can't tell you how many times I bet the irregulars would be called "troublesome" lolaj (laugh out loud and jump) (my favorite pastime besides reading is making up fake text talk) and omo I have an iPad

Go to my blog for a list of all my texting trends

MushroomCloud said...

the scold's bridle sounds like the thing in The Outstanding Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation. If I'm correct, the tongue is placed between those nasty metal spikes.Pleasant, eh?

EQ said...

Ouch!

What about the guys? They talk *at least* as much as we do...

But, come on. That's supposed to hold an Irregular? We could take it apart in under a minute. I think.

Violet said...

The iPad thing sounds just like something Luz would invent.
The printer was kind of gross, but it was still pretty awesome.
The submerine sounds like Ananka's aunt Beatrice would want if she was still alive.
I know this is completly off topic, but when's the third Kiki Strike book coming out? I can't wait I was just rereading the first two.

Anonymous said...

Eeeyikes. That scold's bridle is terrifying.

I was probably very well acquainted with it in a past life though, I think. xD Given the mouth I have on me today.

Anonymous said...

Looks like some sort of torture device. . . .Yeesh.

Anonymous said...

Another name for the "Scold's bridle" was a "branks" -- and it's pretty horrid to think they had a word for that!

In the unlikely event you'd like to know more, I can suggest Curious Punishments of Bygone Days by Alice Morse Earle. It is quite possibly the most cheery nonfiction study of torture and corporal punishment ever written. I'm quite sure it's the cheeriest such book I've read.

Robert in San Diego (and yeah, I have a copy)

Anonymous said...

Dear EQ:

You're right -- that doesn't look like it would hold a real Irregular. Most of us, however, would be dismally out of luck trying to pick a padlock right behind our necks. And those spikes look sharp.

Robert in San Diego

Anonymous said...

The scolds's bridle doesn't look th that bad. Sides, guys need it more then girls

Anonymous said...

Mom....I know what I want for my birthday xD Just kidding. But all that looks extremely cool. Can we count on seeing similar devices in the Kiki Strike books?

Elizabeth said...

Elephant poop dolls? Wow. Weirdddd! Haha!

Kitty said...

Ouch... that bridle's painful D: