What is it about alcohol that steadies nerve, bolsters courage, and makes cocky men out of timid boys?

Throughout history, the hip flask has been a necessary footnote to courage. Soldiers who just had their limbs blown off swilled as much as they could from their hip flasks while waiting for someone to cart them off deep, bullet-riddled trenches. Surgeons forced to perform surgery sans anaesthesia and an operating table drink copiously from their hip flasks. So do their patients - the goal being to empty the hip flask of the good juice as quickly as possible and get knocked out five minutes before the surgeon sticks his hand into a gaping wound.

Yes, the hip flask has been the best friend of many a man and a boy. It still is, even though these days, times have changed so much a severed limb and an impromptu operation are no longer what one would need a hip flask for.

The New Face of Fear What does modern man fear and thus, need a hip flask for? Three things: zombies, Michael Jackson, and an unplanned pregnancy - and quite possibly in that order, too. Other than zombies and the Jackson, nothing strikes as much fear in the male heart as an unplanned pregnancy. Men would do anything - practice withdrawal, drink supplements, even empty their money clips of cash to splurge on high-tech condoms - just to make sure it doesn't happen.

Organ in Peril? Despite this vehement fear of unwanted progenies,you would be surprised by the lengths a man would go through not to get anyone pregnant. Here's the lowdown on the strangest methods to have been historically documented.

1. Weasel testicles The Dark Ages in Europe had been a truly dark time for a lot of reasons. With superstition replacing science, women all over Europe tried to avoid pregnancy by wearing amulets made from the following: mule earwax, a weasel's testicles, or a sliver of bone plucked off the right side of a very black cat. If the charm worked, the amulet was passed on to the women of the family for generations. If it didn't, it meant a new one had to be made because the cat must not have been black enough.

2. Crocodile dung The ancients were not called ancients for nothing. Not only did they practice methods that would now be considered barbaric by modern standards, they seemingly followed an unspoken code that everything - everything! - they did had to be horrible in some way. Women of the time made vaginal suppositories called pessaries and placed it down there as blockage. The components of this precursor to the diaphragm? Leaves, seaweed, and cow dung. It's amazing ancient women did not take to swigging off hip flasks, too!

3. Animal intestines This might seem gory science, and it is. However, there was sound logic behind the practice of wrapping one's wang in animal intestines. You do the same today using condoms. Unfortunately, early men did not have the almighty latex to whip out on short notice. They had to make do with condoms made from pig intestines and sour milk for lubricant.

4. Mercury Ah, mercury - hot, delicious mercury. If there's one thing that has remained constant throughout out history, it's the human race's insistence to look upon mercury as some form of magic liquid, a silver-colored liquid elixir. Women today don't drink mercury from hip flasks, of course, but the women in ancient China did just that to prevent contraception. Naturally, they did not get pregnant. Their kidneys also failed, they suffered brain damage --- but who's counting? The main thing was stopping the baby, and mercury did just that.

5. The Coca-cola douche This contraception method is perhaps the most surprising because it was widely practiced at a time when sodas already knew bottling. Believe it or not, women actually believed a can of soda would one good contraceptive make. But no, they were not drinking it with the pill. They were douching with it right after sex, believing that the sugar and the carbonation could frizz sperm and babies away.

Luckily for both men and women, science has long since reclaimed its place in the contraception department. For those who want sack action without having to worry purchase diapers along with Batman cufflinks later on, there are now many options that range in cost and effectiveness - from the simple withdrawal method to the condom and the diaphragm.