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Australia has better than that to offer. Meet the Gympie-Gympie Tree Brushing against it is described as being like being burned with hot acid and electrocuted at the same time. Animals as large as horses have died within hours after being stung. People have been driven mad by the pain levels which can persist for months or years. A military officer who used a leaf off this bush as toilet paper reportedly immediately shot himself to escape the pain.

No, he's right. It is a theocracy. They worship the all mighty dollar.

I prefer to worship cleavage: http://www.odditycentral.com/p...

Arguably the most stomach-churning food I've ever seen came from the Americans:- Pork brains in milk gravy (More here).

It's the pink-coloured "milk gravy" that makes this truly nauseating. :-6

I mean, really? And you have the nerve to get squeamish about haggis, FFS?!

Never mind the fact that hot dogs are probably as bad (in terms of what they contain) as haggis, if not far worse. Of course, *they* have the advantage of being ludicrously processed to the extent that there's no sign of their origins for ignorance-is-bliss Americans who like to argue about whether ketchup or mustard is the preferred topping for their sausageful of ground-to-atomic-size pigs' lips and assholes...

Pork brains in milk gravy, though? So far ahead of either in the retch-inducing stakes it's not even funny.

http://www.odditycentral.com/n...

Far, far more people are injured and killed by balls used in sports than R/C models.

I'm not sure why anyone would think that given how much less mass they have, and the fact they are almost entirely physically controlled. If a string breaks they flutter to the ground, not plummet.

Maybe. You seem to be comparing small kites to big models -- what if it's a tiny model vs a big kite?

I imagine that significantly more people have been injured and killed by kites than R/C models.

Ultimately, it would make sense to regulate kites in exactly the same way as R/C aircraft, as the risks are very similar -- do it by size or weight, for example. But kites are considered "normal" and R/C aircraft are not, and so we get laws like this ...

When's the last time you saw someone playing baseball (with a bat, not throwing) in the middle of a festival or crowded park? You are basically saying you would do that if given a choice?

I've seen a spectator get knocked out by a kicked soccer ball at the local park. Not that you'd have room to play this in a festival, but they play it at the local park all the time. And the reason there's signs up that say "NO GOLFING" is because people were golfing ...

There's lots of things that involve some amount of danger being done in our parks, and now New Zealand has picked one to "fix".

Not defending them, but it's not murder unless they're killing humans. "Slaughtered" would be a better word to use.

legally yes ... but sometimes its nice to judge people by their own criteria.

You could be one with nature and put your mansion in the canopy.

I always wonder why people like this http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/slavisa-pajkic-a-real-life-human-battery.html don't take up Randi on his challenge and collect the million dollars? Surely spending a week or two in coming up with a procedure and then making a formal application would be worth it?

In this case, it clams he can heat a cup of water to 97degrees Celcius by his hands. That seems like an easy thing to test unambiguously. If true it would be an amazing blow to our understanding of human physiology and basic physics, and would have tremendous value in our search for knowledge in addition to the potential economic benefits that would come with understanding the new science involved.

Then I think "humm, which is more likely, he isn't doing the test because it is 'too much bother' or he isn't doing the test because he knows he is a fraud?" Then I feel fine to ignore him.

In this particular case, it is not clear exactly what Pajkic is supposedly able to do. If he is merely surprisingly resilient to electricity, I don't know that would qualify as "paranormal" - people with particularly conductive or non-conductive skin might be "special", but not outside the bounds of scientific understanding. If he can actually generate electricity or heat or light or store it and later release it, that type of thing would be pretty amazing.

So what do you think Khyber can do and how could he be tested?

Civet Coffee is so fifteen-seconds-ago. the latest and greatest thing is Elephant Coffee!

Extra value because elephants are likely to become extinct any second now due to excessive poaching for ivory.

It depends on if selling elephant processed coffee or ivory delivers more profit. One could argue processing coffee with elephants is a renewable resource, so it might be possible to make coffee elephants more profitable.

MEH!

Civet Coffee is so fifteen-seconds-ago. the latest and greatest thing is Elephant Coffee!

Extra value because elephants are likely to become extinct any second now due to excessive poaching for ivory.

What kind of engineer needs to ask hundreds, or thousands, about what type of pen to get?

Yeesh... yeah. You're an engineer, not a teacher. Just take whatever they stock in the supply cabinet at work and be happy with it! And if it sucks, well, it's their loss in quality of your work output :P

But seriously, I would ask what Samuel Silva uses for :
  http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/talented-lawyer-draws-stunning-photo-like-ball-point-pen-portraits.html

Personally, I would just find some cheap mass manufactured pen that was comfortable to hold and get good at controlling it. If one started having problems with globing or irregular coverage, I'd just pitch it. But I remember doing lots of ballpoint pen drawing/shading as a kid and rarely running into problems.

First, name for me a country with an "all-expense-paid resort". Whoops, there isn't one! Because it doesn't work. Every single society throughout all of human history punishes criminals. To varying extents, yes, but always with a punishment.

So go ahead, name me a successful society that, in the original words, "is not punitive". I'm waiting.

Norway fits the bill pretty well.

(Of course, that's not to say it's necessarily the best system for them, but it's certainly a "successful society".)

First, name for me a country with an "all-expense-paid resort". Whoops, there isn't one! Because it doesn't work. Every single society throughout all of human history punishes criminals. To varying extents, yes, but always with a punishment.

So go ahead, name me a successful society that, in the original words, "is not punitive". I'm waiting.

Norway fits the bill pretty damn well.