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Redheads Feel Pain Differently Than the Rest of Us

schwit1 writes "If you think redheads are inherently different, well, you'd be right; they're better than you. In fact, they have a higher pain threshold than most of us, and can handle spicier food, too. It turns out that gingers are less sensitive to stinging pain in the skin, according to researchers who injected capsicum, the active ingredient in chilies, into the arms of patients. Professor Lars Arendt-Nielsen, one of the researchers, said, 'Our tests showed that redheads are less sensitive to this particular type of pain. They react less to pressure close to the injected area, or to a pinprick. They seem to be a bit better protected, and that is a really interesting finding.' The finding also means redheads can handle spicier food, reports Science Nordic. It lends some scientific weight to previous suggestions that gingers have a different pain response to the rest of, which were even investigated by MythBusters."

265 comments

  1. Duh by dschmit1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's what happens when you are without a soul.

    1. Re:Duh by Ironchew · · Score: 1

      You dun know who has a soul and who dunnit.

    2. Re:Duh by dschmit1 · · Score: 5, Funny

      The red is all that is left of the pigment as the soul leaves, it's science.

    3. Re:Duh by mozumder · · Score: 1

      GINGERS HAVE SOULS!!

    4. Re:Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, sure, they get a freebie for every soul they steal.

    5. Re:Duh by ThomasFlip · · Score: 2, Funny

      Uhh, they weren't talking about full gingers, they were talking about day-walkers. Get your facts straight.

      --
      If the dollar is an "I owe you nothing", then the Euro is a "Who owes you nothing." - Doug Casey
    6. Re:Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I think they're just used to getting beaten up.

    7. Re:Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As a ginger, I can assure you that it is true that we do not, in fact, have souls.

    8. Re:Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As a ginger, I can assure you that it is true that we do not, in fact, have souls.

      Yes, but we do have soles ... um unless of course you have both feet amputated or sumthn.

    9. Re:Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course, same goes for brunettes, blondes, black-haired, gray-haired, white-haired, skinheads..

  2. Eureka by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This report jibes with my own ongoing research into the pain threshold of redheads. In the videos, they seem to almost enjoy the pain. It is quite fascinating stuff!

    1. Re:Eureka by Capsaicin · · Score: 3, Interesting

      ... they seem to almost enjoy the pain

      Since when did a bit of Capsaicin hurt? See it's not pain to us.

      This is a bit disappointing, I always thought my ability to deal with pain was a personal strength, turns out to be my hair?!

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    2. Re:Eureka by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Remember, this is for posterity...

    3. Re:Eureka by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Capsaicin is the exact chemical body uses to transfer pain-information.

    4. Re:Eureka by Capsaicin · · Score: 5, Funny

      Capsaicin is the exact chemical body uses to transfer pain-information.

      Not so. I don't occur naturally in the human body. Instead there are a number of substances, including histamine, bradykinin, and prostaglandins which "transfer pain-information." Then there's the nervous system.

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    5. Re:Eureka by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 5, Funny

      _

      How long have you been waiting to do this?!

      --
      A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
    6. Re:Eureka by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Capsaicin is used as an ingredient in topical pain relievers; although the initial reaction can be pain (and blistering when used in high concentration.) It seems like a poor choice for a chemical to test pain response.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    7. Re:Eureka by troon · · Score: 1

      How long have you been waiting for this story to come along?

      --
      Ydco co ,df C erb-y go. a Ekrpat t.fxrapev
    8. Re:Eureka by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A shadow of eternity...

      (nope, I'm not Capsaicin, but I could not resist...)

    9. Re:Eureka by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "...turns out to be my hair?!"

      Ooh, so maybe redheads can suffer from the Samson effect? j/k

    10. Re:Eureka by martas · · Score: 2

      shit, slashdot is turning into reddit... ABANDON SHIP!

    11. Re:Eureka by Hatta · · Score: 1

      It's mostly Substance P, a peptide neurotransmitter. Capsaicin works mainly through substance P receptors, histamine, bradykinin, and prostaglandins have their own receptors.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    12. Re:Eureka by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Well done.

    13. Re:Eureka by Capsaicin · · Score: 2

      How long have you been waiting to do this?!

      Well you know as a redhead pharmacology major with this moniker ... yeah these opportunities arise every other day. ;)

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    14. Re:Eureka by Capsaicin · · Score: 1

      Capsaicin works mainly through substance P receptors, histamine, bradykinin, and prostaglandins have their own receptors.

      How Capsaicin works wasn't the question, but rather how the body "transfer[s] pain-information," and in particular whether Capsaicin is the endogenous transmitter.

      That being said, my understanding is that Capsaicin affects vanilloid receptors and is not mediated via the same receptors as substance P. A citation might prove me wrong.

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    15. Re:Eureka by Gruff+2005 · · Score: 1

      And what kind of vid... do you, oh yeah.

    16. Re:Eureka by lsatenstein · · Score: 1

      I am a redhead (now white), and I always had a high threshold for physical pain. On the emotional side, I was a sucker, and could sob or laugh with situations that others would fail to be influenced.

      I had to struggle to phrase the sentence so as to not end in a preposition or with the word "with".

      --
      Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
    17. Re:Eureka by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's because you wrote it backward.

      "On the emotional side, I was a sucker, and situations which would fail to influence others could cause me to sob or laugh."

    18. Re:Eureka by lsatenstein · · Score: 1

      Thank you. Sometimes we get irritated with dangling prepositions' and sometimes it seems to be OK. I just dont know anymore, how to end a sentence. With the flow, it is good to go with.

         

      --
      Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
    19. Re:Eureka by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I find that when you find yourself wanting to end a sentence with a preposition, it's typically because you said something backward - i.e. meandering train of thought. It can be a tricky habit to break, but in any written form of communication it's a simple matter of revising, revising, revising.

      Normally, if you find the main point of what you wanted to say and put it first, then follow it with whatever else your sentence was supposed to say, you'll find that the preposition at the end (or the need for one there) magically just disappears. The result is usually a bit more straightforward and easier to grep, too.

    20. Re:Eureka by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AC, The biggest irritant to me is the sentence of the form that says "There are "n" things to choose from". That "from" at the sentence end makes me cringe, but now I accept it as OK as I have seen TV commercials with that sentence structure.

    21. Re:Eureka by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Backwards again. You can choose from n things. Or maybe you can't, but someone else can. The original statement, "there are n things to choose from", conveniently neglects to tell me who's permitted to choose them.

      Ads are particularly egregious violators, though: They are designed to target you, but the advertisers want to deliberately avoid targeting you, so they end up phrasing everything in the passive tense so that you have to figure out that the ad is talking about you. And after you've figured out "hmm, this applies to me", well, they're 50% of the way to selling you their product!

      Consider:

      "there are 3 colors to choose from": You really can't argue with this. There are three colors. This focuses on that fact, and the advertiser hopes that you'll figure out (without being told) that you could choose one of those colors.

      "you can choose from 3 colors": You could very easily find argument with this. In fact, one nearly inevitable objection takes the form, "... or I could choose to not buy any of them". The advertiser does not want this thought to occur to you!

  3. Obligatory quote... by bmo · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I'm not like other people. Pain hurts me" - Daffy Duck

    1. Re:Obligatory quote... by mjwx · · Score: 1

      "I'm not like other people. Pain hurts me" - Daffy Duck

      IIRC, wasn't Daffy a brunette.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    2. Re:Obligatory quote... by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Daffy refers to himself as "This little black duck."

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  4. But does the rug match the curtains? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But does the rug match the curtains? That is the true question.

    1. Re:But does the rug match the curtains? by Drishmung · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yes, but not the upholstery. http://xkcd.com/508/</obxkcd>

      --
      Protoplasm. Quiet Protoplasm. I like quiet protoplasm.
  5. Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All this time I thought that calling someone a 'ginger' was pejorative.

    1. Re:Gingers? by ThePeices · · Score: 1

      I think its down to the fact that people have not yet sorted out whether Gingerism is a bad thing or not.

      Is it un-ethical to commit Gingerism? Or even immoral?

      To be honest, I really dont know, I havent thought about it deeply enough.
      We need more debate on the subject, and need to reach a consensus.

    2. Re:Gingers? by garyebickford · · Score: 1

      IIRC one or more of the dating sites (match.com? OKcupid.com? I dunno) has basically told redheads not to apply, because nobody will go out with them. I personally have always been a sucker for redheads, but have only once had any kind of relationship.

      --
      It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
    3. Re:Gingers? by White+Flame · · Score: 1

      I think everybody else should grow up already.

      By what means do pejoratives become silly anachronisms? Certainly not by enshrining them as society-wide PC ban-words. Bash a word out of common use and it'll just be replaced by something else that those who hold disdain will begin to use anew. The problem is the disdain, not the label, and anybody who rails against the label thinking its absence will solve anything is spouting balderdash.

    4. Re:Gingers? by Majik+Sheff · · Score: 5, Funny

      It is.

      Fun fact: ginger is an anagram for another racial pejorative.

      --
      Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
    5. Re:Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is.. reverse the first 3 letters.

    6. Re:Gingers? by Bonker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I've always thought the 'Gingers have no souls' bit was invented totally by Matt Stone, a Jewish/Irish/American ginger, for 'South Park' as a 'take that' for Jewish critics of the show who describe him as a 'Self-hating Jew'.

      I've always thought that Ginger skin-tone and hair coloration was very attractive on women. I've not heard a lot of disrespect for Gingers before the South Park episode, and then it's been entirely tongue-in-cheek.

      --
      The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
    7. Re:Gingers? by chrismcb · · Score: 1

      >

      Grow up already.

      Yeah, whatever... stop being so damn insensitive, and stop getting offended by every little thing.
      Not only am I a red head I was voted the top nerd in high school.
      Its one thing to not allow someone to vote, or to force them to drink from another water fountain... But you know, sticks and stones...

    8. Re:Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought Matt Smith made it cool...

    9. Re:Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Wow, I didn't even realize there are people who hate people with red/orange hair. To the socially naive, ginger sounds kinda cute actually ...

    10. Re:Gingers? by Kreigaffe · · Score: 1

      absolutely untrue. maybe on Little Inbred Island, but not here in the states.

      --
      ... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about. :|
    11. Re:Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suppose that I was being 'nice' about it, and was refraining to use the N-word.

      However, since the cat is out of the bag, I will note that not only am I a 'ginger' but also a 'filthy Jew'. At least the second part is easier to hide.

    12. Re:Gingers? by jamesh · · Score: 1

      Also, ginger sounds a bit like ninja. Coincidence?

    13. Re:Gingers? by ppanon · · Score: 1

      Maybe you're getting confused with Cryos? I guess that's an anonymous date of sorts :-)

      --
      Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
    14. Re:Gingers? by buybuydandavis · · Score: 1

      I've always thought the 'Gingers have no souls' bit was invented totally by Matt Stone, a Jewish/Irish/American ginger, for 'South Park' as a 'take that' for Jewish critics of the show who describe him as a 'Self-hating Jew'.

      I've always thought that Ginger skin-tone and hair coloration was very attractive on women. I've not heard a lot of disrespect for Gingers before the South Park episode, and then it's been entirely tongue-in-cheek.

      Yeah, I don't think I ever heard the term before South Park. Now I find it all hilarious. And I agree about the attractivenes of the skin tone and hair color, although I still don't find freckles very fetching.

      Is anyone in the world actually a Ginger hater? I'm surprised at seeing a few people get their panties in a bunch over this.

    15. Re:Gingers? by geminidomino · · Score: 5, Funny

      The female ones LOOK cute, too.

      It's a trick. Get an axe.

    16. Re:Gingers? by 6Yankee · · Score: 2

      Guess you didn't go through the school system as one. Ginger nerd with glasses, yeah, that was fun.

    17. Re:Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      .. but it's somehow still cool to put down the "gingers".

      Grow up already.

      I'm with you on that. When I was in middle school in Alaska, there was a bunch of kids who were constantly hassling my best friend, constantly saying things to put him down for no reason whatsoever. They kept calling him stuff that made no sense to me at all, so I just lumped them all into the nonsensical idiots category. One day I asked him "Why the fuck do they keep calling you zebra and oreo?" and he told me. I went from thinking they were idiots to despising them. Thanks to my parents I guess that I managed to get to age 12 before I clued in to that aspect of human asshattery.

    18. Re:Gingers? by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 2

      Is anyone in the world actually a Ginger hater?

      Yes.

      I'm surprised at seeing a few people get their panties in a bunch over this.

      Probably because you weren't aware that it exists. Trust me, it does.

      At least red-haired women have some positive stereotypes to go along with the negative ones. We red-haired men pretty much get our pick between "stupid and violent" (probably related to anti-Irish stereotypes) and "ineffectual dweeb." But trust me, any redhead, of either sex, has had to put up with some truly astonishing crap because of it.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    19. Re:Gingers? by Merls+the+Sneaky · · Score: 2

      In Australia we call them Ranga's.

    20. Re:Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It all makes sense now. That's why "The Irish are the blacks of Europe."

    21. Re:Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, I agree, I had never even heard the term "ginger" before that South Park episode, nor heard even the slightest hint of any idea that anyone had any negative ideas about redheads (which is what everyone used to call people with red hair!). It doesn't really make any sense to me, but that's fads for you, I guess.

    22. Re:Gingers? by Sepodati · · Score: 2

      Anything "different" will get you picked on in school. Red hair is the easy target.

    23. Re:Gingers? by stjobe · · Score: 1

      But you know, sticks and stones...

      ...may break my bones, but words can REALLY hurt me?

      --
      "Total destruction the only solution" - Bob Marley
    24. Re:Gingers? by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      Do I have to spell it out for you...

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    25. Re:Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have always thought "ginger" ladies (the ones with really pale skin and lots of red freckles, light green eyes and flaming red hair,) to be the hottest, sexiest women on the planet. I have one picture in my... collection, that is basically just the head and top of torso, and just a hint of a nipple... and she is so damned hot and cute and sexy that I keep the pic., despite it being pathetically low res., and small, because she is SO unbelievably hot and sexy. I'd like to try to lick the freckles off her... and I love the freckles, don't misunderstand that I would like her not to have them... I know they can't be removed by licking, but I'd sure love to try... she just gets me so damned hot...

      I have long felt that the expression "ugly redheaded stepdaughter" was made up by her jealous blonde and brunet stepsisters to vent their frustrations that the hot little redheaded cutie gets all the attention. :) Ah... reds.

      So put me down as loving the red heads/gingers! People who seem not to like them are just envious. Now they turn out to have higher pain thresholds? Well, another way in which they are just plain better. Oh my dear sweet Molly...

    26. Re:Gingers? by buybuydandavis · · Score: 1

      Everyone has to put up with crap.

      There's a difference between being a Ginger Hater and using a observable physical characteristic as something to yak on when you decide to be a schmuck to someone. You're tall, you're thin, you're fat, you have big/small head, ear, lips, butt, hands, feet, etc.

      I'm sure I've seen people give shit to people while pointing out all those things, including red hair. But I've never encountered expressions of some Gingerist ideology, where people have some specific grudge or antipathy toward red haired people. They may find them more or less attractive than average, but that's as far as I've ever seen it go.

      I grew up in Hawaii, where all caucasians (like myself) were known as haoles (pronounced howlies), were considered indistinguishable, and were all disliked together. When I went to college on "the mainland", as we called the continental US, I made the astounding discovery that white folks could give me shit too, although in their case, they were mainly just being asses. Oh, they'd find something to squawk about, but it was really just a rationalization for why they were being asses.

      So what evidence do you have that there are actual GInger Haters out there, besides some people who are asses to red haired people while putting them down for having red hair?

    27. Re:Gingers? by JosKarith · · Score: 1

      My wife is from a line of redheads but only got a hint of the red - the rest of her colouration is perfect for red so she dyes her hair. She never wants for attention from guys - I've lost count of the number of times I've gone off for a piss or to grab a beer to find some guy hitting on her. (My usual reaction is to sashay up, put an arm round her shoulder and say "Sweetie, who's your friend? Is he for me...?" Never fails to put them off their stride...)
      Redhead girls get a lot of shit till everyone's bits start working, then it's attention from guys and jealous bitching from girls. Redhead boys are just shit out of luck...

      --
      'Don't worry' said the trees when they saw the axe coming, 'The handle is one of us.'
    28. Re:Gingers? by sortius_nod · · Score: 1

      Never share your sanga with a ranga!

    29. Re:Gingers? by Truedat · · Score: 1
      Well I disagree with this notion that good natured humor based around differences in appearance is objectionable, what a fucking miserable world that would be. I'm always making jokes to my wife who is of ginger persuasion and she responds in kind about me being a short-ass. Then there is her brother, whose email address has the word "gingersack" in it - mind you he's just changed that in the interest of employability!

      If somebody makes a put-down, ie a comment of _any_ sort made in order to make somebody feel miserable, then fine, they should back off. But I dont see that here and anyway the fix isn't to portray it as a cause on par with African slavery.

    30. Re:Gingers? by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 2

      So what evidence do you have that there are actual GInger Haters out there, besides some people who are asses to red haired people while putting them down for having red hair?

      "So what evidence do you have that there are actual ___ haters out there, besides some people who are asses to ___ people while putting them down for being ___?" You can write off any prejudice this way, if you choose. The link I posted contains years' worth of evidence; if you choose to ignore it, that's your business.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    31. Re:Gingers? by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Funny but I never heard any of it in my life time. My wife is a red head and has told that it was a negative with some people but she grew up in a small New Mexico town with what seems like an overly large number of prejudices for the size of the population.
      These included.
      What Elementary school you went do.
      Anti-Mormon
      Anti-Hispanic
      Anti-Redhead
      Anti-Native American
      Anti-Catholic
      Anti-Atheist

      My wife keeps saying that she wants me to see the town she grew up in just so I can understand how bad it was.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    32. Re:Gingers? by am+2k · · Score: 1

      Wow, I didn't even realize there are people who hate people with red/orange hair. To the socially naive, ginger sounds kinda cute actually ...

      I also only realized that when there was a Southpark episode about this... In my country, we don't even have a name for gingers, because it's just nothing noteworthy.

    33. Re:Gingers? by Dogtanian · · Score: 1, Funny

      In Australia we call them Ranga's.

      I thought you just called everyone "Bruce" or "Sheila" according to gender- anything else would surely cause confusion.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    34. Re:Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like I say, we've come a long way, but it's somehow still cool to put down the "gingers".

      Grow up already.

      I'm pretty sure the whole "ginger" thing is actual a spoof on actual bigotry. It did used to be a real thing a long time ago, but to the modern person it's so ridiculous that it's inherently funny. I mean, red hair -- really? That's something worth getting worked up over.

    35. Re:Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When I think of ginger I think of a this
       
      Not until reading these comments did I ever think of "ginger" as pejorative.

      Just some weird British word for redhead. The root itself isn't any kind of red. Do you Brits have some fascination with Gilligan's Island?

    36. Re:Gingers? by HopefulIntern · · Score: 1

      I would agree. I think by banning words from common use, we create a sort of Streisand effect. The n-word is not often uttered in public anymore, but the web is full of it. People clearly still want to say these things, so it's not like banning the words stamps out the intention behind it. Banning the word gives it more power, due to its taboo-ness. Who hasn't been called a (n-word) or (semite) in an online game?
      Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino had the right idea. Racial slurs are aplenty in that film, but used jokingly as a term of endearment. That takes power away from the word, more effectively than banning it from use (though hatred will still prevail, so another word will likely be invented to replace the old one).

    37. Re:Gingers? by couchslug · · Score: 1, Funny

      "The female ones LOOK cute, too."

      You must not have researched in a Walmart....

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    38. Re:Gingers? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      In my country, we don't even have a name for gingers, because it's just nothing noteworthy.

      In the white Protestant Anglo-Saxon tradition, red hair is associated with lasciviousness, anger and therefore sin. Celts were the enemy, unChristian, savage and so on. The fact that vestiges of this attitude still prevail just goes to show how prejudice lingers in the collective unconscious.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    39. Re:Gingers? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      It's quite common in the UK for people to discriminate against gingers. Especially against men. Women don't have that problem so much- but to be a red-headed man in the UK is quite a stigma.

      Fortunately- my dad didn't inherit the red-headed gene that almost everyone in my extended family seems to have- so it wasn't passed on to me (I grew up in the UK). I avoided that stigma as a kid.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    40. Re:Gingers? by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Wow didn't know that was a real thing these days. I thought you were getting worked up over parodic humor about an ancient dead prejudice.

      Looks like the site got slashdotted though, haha instant karma!

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    41. Re:Gingers? by cyclomedia · · Score: 1

      me too. Redheads are my favourite! (I'm a dark brunette, male, GSH, nerd...)

      --
      If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.
    42. Re:Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is anyone in the world actually a Ginger hater?

      While I wouldn't call myself a Ginger hater, I was always a Mary Ann man.

    43. Re:Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, I didn't even realize there are people who hate people with red/orange hair. To the socially naive, ginger sounds kinda cute actually ...

      I also only realized that when there was a Southpark episode about this... In my country, we don't even have a name for gingers, because it's just nothing noteworthy.

      The South Park episode actually started it. The writers were taking the piss out of bigotry by having the characters be bigots about something completely innocuous. Sufficient numbers of the audience started repeating what they saw on TV for hate against redheads to be common in our society ten years later.

      There was hate against redheads a hundred years ago stemming from English hatred of the Irish, but it disappeared after WWII with the exception of the phrase "beaten like a red-headed stepchild". All of the "ginger" nonsense is new and is due to South Park.

    44. Re:Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I also only realized that when there was a Southpark episode about this... In my country, we don't even have a name for gingers, because it's just nothing noteworthy.

      Then how do you persecute them?

    45. Re:Gingers? by Artifex · · Score: 1

      In Australia we call them Ranga's.

      Calling them orangutans is particularly offensive.

      --
      Get off my launchpad!
    46. Re:Gingers? by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      In my country, we don't even have a name for gingers, because it's just nothing noteworthy.

      In the white Protestant Anglo-Saxon tradition, red hair is associated with lasciviousness, anger and therefore sin. Celts were the enemy, unChristian, savage and so on. The fact that vestiges of this attitude still prevail just goes to show how prejudice lingers in the collective unconscious.

      Which is ironic considering that when the originally pagan Anglo-Saxons first set foot on British soil, a great number of the Britons (Celts) were already Christianized through their Roman citizenship.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    47. Re:Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As far as I'm aware, even over here, the word "ginger" didn't get used UNTIL the South Park episode (and, as others have pointed out, it is an anagram for a much more "real" racial slur). As far as I can tell, it's all supposed to be satire.

    48. Re:Gingers? by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

      And the weird thing is that red haired people are a very small minority in Ireland.

      --
      http://www.acetonestudio.com
    49. Re:Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only bogans do.

    50. Re:Gingers? by buybuydandavis · · Score: 1

      I wasn't denying the reports of red heads being attacked, I was questioning the underlying motives of the attackers.

      But reading up a bit on redheads at Wikipedia, I see the section on Gingerism. My guess is that the high prevalence in Britain came about because of the correlation to Irish and Scottish nationality. When the "others" have a correlating distinguishing physical characteristic, it isn't surprising that hatred gets transferred to the characteristic itself.

      In the US, I don't think Gingerism is that prevalent, and where there is any prejudice at all against redheads, it's on the order of antipathy some have for people with big noses or blond hair.

      I grew up in Hawaii where white children were near the bottom of the social pecking order, and were actively targeted for abuse. Being blond, I stood out as "extra white", and saw more abuse come my way because of it. But there was no particular ideology grown up over hating blond hair. Maybe if they had been given a few hundred years with whites as an underclass, they might have gotten around to it.

    51. Re:Gingers? by NoseyNick · · Score: 1

      Thank you. I came here to make sure this had been posted, and it had. I brought mod points, but you were already at 5, so all I can offer is my sincere thanks :-)

      --
      Nick Waterman, Sr Tech Director, #include <stddisclaimer>
    52. Re:Gingers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Huh? had a mate in Thailand whose online moniker was "gingercod" meaning, well, never mind. he didn't seem bothered by it anyway.

  6. Groan.... by Gideon+Wells · · Score: 1

    My hair color ranges from brown to noticeably red depending on the season and sunlight. I get it bad enough that I eat everything with hot sauce. Chicken, beef, french fries, potato chips, popcorn, straight from the bottle on occasion. Now I need to brace for a whole new round of ribbing that this might be due to my hair color than just my incredibly bad taste in food :(.

    --
    by Anonymous Coward: I, for one, welcome the shift from car analogies to pizza analogies. um.. overlords?
    1. Re:Groan.... by chromas · · Score: 1

      Why can't it be both?

    2. Re:Groan.... by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 1

      What type of hotsauce? I've known a few people that claim to love hotsauce, but then I find out they're talking about tobasco sauce, which to me just tastes like vinegar. One drop of my 500,000 scoville sauce and they you wouldn't believe how fast they run! Good time, good times...

    3. Re:Groan.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      A friend of mine has some "Dave's Total Insanity Private Reserve." Holy fuck that stuff is hot. I touched a toothpick to my tounge that had been dipped into the bottle. First my tounge went numb, about 20 minutes later the pain started and I had this wonderful aftertaste. All in all, it was not a totally unpleasant experience.

    4. Re:Groan.... by QQBoss · · Score: 2

      I love this stuff (600000 Scoville units):
      MadDog 357 Collector's Edition

      One of the few high (100K+ is high to me. No, I am not a red head.) capsaicin sauces I have had which also tastes good. I would mix it into most any appropriate food, though rarely was more than a drop needed when cooking for one. Add to that the fun of putting one single drop on one random tidbit put out for unsuspecting snacking adds a wonderful dimension to an evening of gaming or any other event where you don't mind being called all manner of foul epithets when the person regains their ability to breath.

      A friend who did the same toothpick test you did described it as the closest he has ever felt to having his tongue pierced with no preparation.

    5. Re:Groan.... by HopefulIntern · · Score: 2

      Have you tried this bad boy? We use it here at work for initiation of new guys. An amount the size of half a pea is enough to start you sweating and hyperventilating (and in some cases, panic, it would seem. Whoops.) Claims to be 6m scoville. I dunno about that, but it's definitely not something I could ever use as a condiment.
      Right now I am having a disappointing pasta salad, made happy by this guy. Nice kick, garlic taste, lovely stuff.

    6. Re:Groan.... by tehcyder · · Score: 2

      What type of hotsauce? I've known a few people that claim to love hotsauce, but then I find out they're talking about tobasco sauce, which to me just tastes like vinegar. One drop of my 500,000 scoville sauce and they you wouldn't believe how fast they run! Good time, good times...

      If you want to show how tough/stupid you are, and don't care about the taste, why not just drinik pints of piss like rugby players do here in the UK?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    7. Re:Groan.... by Algan · · Score: 2

      A teaspoon of The Hottest Fuckin' Sauce (600K Scoville) in my bowl of chilli, please.
      Yeah, I'm a Ginger :)

      --
      If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
    8. Re:Groan.... by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 1

      I can actually taste hot sauce that hot.

  7. Re:Happy Monday from the Golden Girls! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A pal and a cosmonaut???

  8. I thought this had been covered several years ago. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Redheads need more anesthetic to dull pain: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1362956
    Greater response to pentazocine: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=153647
    And morphine: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1736101

    So there's clearly something about MC1R that differentiates pain / killer response; but please stay off the soulless daywalker stuff. It's not helpful and just sounds juvenile.

    Oh wait, this is slashdot, I forgot. Whereas you had to invent kick a redhead day, why don't we have kick a geek day? Oh, because that's EVERY DAY... :-)

    Ha, best of all the captcha is "placid".

  9. Not just redheads by Vladius · · Score: 1

    There has been some discussion that fair skinned people in general suffer from this phenomenon. I say suffer because while having a high pain tolerance might be cool it makes it a lot harder to anesthetize people like this. This is double so for fair skinned redheads (which many are). I've seen this personally as I am fair skinned. I don't have the increased pain tolerance or the red hair but I am harder to anesthetize, locals have been difficult because I typically need more than normal sometimes. What the researchers should do next is look into the instance for people who have supposedly "woke up" during surgery being paralyzed yet still feeling the intense pain of surgery in progress.

    1. Re:Not just redheads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not a redhead but my mother was. When I was younger you could see slight redness in some of my brown hair. I can tan but I burn.

      OK, so what? Well when I had my wisdom teeth out the first injection to knock me out wasn't enough. They had to stick another needle in, and the partial knockout from the first stick made me feel like I was going to die.

      I never had dental anxiety before that. It took me a number of years to get over it. Several pain-free cavity procedures helped restore my confidence.

      So. Maybe the gene is sometimes still there even if you don't have much red. Either that or the first injection was some kind of mistake.

    2. Re:Not just redheads by Securityemo · · Score: 1

      I'm a partial redhead, but I have sucky pain tolerance. My sister and father on the other hand... dad had a bit of a stomach ache one day, that just wouldn't go away. Then it did, rather suddenly. When he went to the hospital he was ash-grey and rambling; turns out it was a ruptured appendix. A person with a more normal pain treshold would surely have gone much sooner and spared himself all of the trouble involved in having your insides surgically cleaned from pus.

      They're both dark red-brownish, dad is red-skinned and my sister wound up olive.

      --
      Emotions! In your brain!
    3. Re:Not just redheads by petsounds · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I had fire engine red hair when I was little, but it's more brownish-red now. The last cavity I had, the dentist had to give me three shots of local in my gums to numb the area. Not real pleasant. When I was around 10 I had a cyst in my jaw that had to be surgically removed, which they put me under for in the hospital. I had no problem going under, but woke up in a hallway next to several passed-out people on gurneys. As you can imagine, I was a bit disconcerted by this. A nurse finally walked by and looked over in surprise, "You're not supposed to be awake yet!" No, I guess not. Now at least I have an explanation...

    4. Re:Not just redheads by Nocturna81 · · Score: 1

      Had the same thing (though I still have red hair). After the third shot the dentist opted to just wait for the sedative to take effect. It did, eventually. Same thing with other local anesthetics. It usually takes about the triple amount.. I also had my tonsils removed a few months ago. I woke up before I was supposed to (thankfully not during the surgery like my grandmother had, also a redhead) and completely clear-headed and didn't have the "groggy" effect everybody complains about. The strange thing I find though that almost no doctor I spoke too knows about "redheads". Only one nurse who, trough education and experience, knew that people with red hair are more likely to need a bit more anesthetics.

    5. Re:Not just redheads by KillaBeave · · Score: 1

      Same here, redhead with a high tolerance for pain, but the dentist can never give me enough novocain to numb me up for a filling. High tolerance for pain? Played a half of a football game with a broken arm ... didn't know it was broken until we stopped at halftime and it had a chance to swell up, making me look like Popeye. 3 shots at the dentist and I can still feel just about everything. Hurts like hell, but by then I'm aggravated enough to just let them do their work while I'm cursing them mentally.

      Luckily when I had my wisdom teeth out the stuff to put me under worked just fine on me. Also the laughing gas seemed to really do the trick, I'm somewhat phobic of needles and I literally couldn't care less when they were giving me the IV for the sedative.

    6. Re:Not just redheads by Amyntas · · Score: 1

      Not sure if it was a high pain tolerance or shock in my case. :P

      I snapped my upper leg clean in two. I tried to splint it myself so I could be dragged to the truck. Didn't work so well. The pain was comparable to a toe cramp, however. The only thing that kept me from moving was the disembodied sensation of when I tried to move the broken limb, and the fear of damaging an artery.

      On the other hand, at the hospital when I finally WAS feeling some pain, the morphine didn't do a lick of good.
      They were administering what they told me was the largest safe dosage, and it was numbing as much as a glass of water would.

      My hair also goes from brown to red throughout the year.

    7. Re:Not just redheads by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      I'm curious how one can be a "partial" redhead. It doesn't count if you dyed your hair.

      Only way I can see you being a partial redhead is if you're a chimera. Now that would be pretty cool if your hair grew in coloured patches like a tortoiseshell cat. That would be awesome!

      I have lots of gingers in my family- would never consider myself "partial" red-head though. Presumably the pain-tolerance gene is close on the same chromosome as the red-hair gene- and if you don't have red hair- you don't have the gene most likely.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    8. Re:Not just redheads by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Interesting.. I'm not red-head but I have the same situation too... I have a high pain-threshold- but things like pain killers/novocain, etc, are typically uneffective on me unless in high dosages.

      When I get a migraine I just "work-through-them" found out it's a waste of time taking my migraine medicine. I do try to turn off any bright lights though- that seems to help... sucks if I'm programming at the time because the monitors don't dim enough.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    9. Re:Not just redheads by powerlord · · Score: 1

      If you can, try stopping for a few minutes, and putting a warm compress over your eyes for a few minutes (put a washcloth under running hot water, wring it out). For me I've found that the rare migraines are usually coming from my sinuses, and this helps open them up again.

      --
      This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
    10. Re:Not just redheads by NeuralSpike · · Score: 1

      Simple, my hair was brick red to copper until I was about 19. Then the hair on my head turned almost brown. Everything else (beard down) stayed red. Thus partial red haired. (Still burn in the sun, but am able to develop a tan, so I guess I'm a day walker.)

    11. Re:Not just redheads by hether · · Score: 1

      I also had red hair when young, red/brown now. Something similar happened to me as well, woke up early from my tonsillectomy surgery when I was in HS and the nurse ran in and was saying I wasn't meant to be awake yet, gave me some morphine quickly. Not fun.

      And I've had the same issue with dental work. Whenever possible, e.g, small fillings,I now go without anesthetic. Because if it's going to hurt anyway, why bother with the numbing in the first place. I can handle intense pain for a short duration, and it saves all the time having to wait for it to wear off. The dentist I have now has hesitantly complied, says it unnerves him to know I am feeling everything. I can tell a difference in how he works when I am numbed versus not.

      Do you also have issues with some pain relievers not working, or wearing off almost instantly? I can find some relief from ibuprofen, but acetaminophen is useless.

      --

      Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.
    12. Re:Not just redheads by hether · · Score: 1

      I wonder if maybe people can have a latent red head gene that produces the same effects but without the red hair to go with it?

      --

      Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.
    13. Re:Not just redheads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I get red hair just on my beard.. tis weird but seems to have come from the Irish side of the family...

    14. Re:Not just redheads by petsounds · · Score: 1

      Depends on the pain med for me. With headaches, acetaminophen works pretty well. But the heavy-duty stuff, not so much. Last year I had an impacted tooth removed (nothing but trouble, these teeth) and the oral surgeon gave me Percosets. Those didn't help much at all, and I was in a fair amount of mind-splitting pain.

      You don't have any locals for fillings? Wow, I'd at least take a couple shots of whiskey. But yea, after that second local I told my dentist to just do it, but she insisted. I'm sure they're concerned about us, but also concerned about frivolous lawsuits: "She tortured me in that chair!"

      [thanks slashdot for erasing my message when I just wanted to turn off karma bonus]

    15. Re:Not just redheads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, I generally need a lot of anaesthetic for dental work too. It's to the point that I'll tell them to just do it and deal with the vibration and chill. Dental drilling doesn't actually hurt unless (I suppose) they actually hit the nerve.

      As for having my wisdom teeth out, I went under for it completely (psychological needs, I didn't want to be there) but there wasn't any 'lag' in coming out of the anaesthetic again. One moment I'm telling a story while they're injecting, the next moment I'm in an empty room with no audience. It was kind of surreal. Not that I went driving afterwards or anything, but I kept pestering my wife to test my faculties to see if I was just misjudging myself or if I really was completely free of the effects. No tests we came up with revealed any lingering after-effects.

      -- History: I was a strawberry-blonde kid and puberty turned everything orange.. nuts... and all.

  10. I don't think this is universal by TWX · · Score: 1

    I have red hair and my wife has red hair. I can tell you that skin gashes and getting jabbed friggin' hurts, and since I like working on old cars I get a lot of that kind of damage to my hands and arms, and I've never liked needles. I'll definitely never be an intravenous drug user or tattoo junkie.

    Both of us have somewhat thin hair. I wonder if those redheads with really thick hair might have something different enough going on to where their pain receptors are not as sensitive.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    1. Re:I don't think this is universal by White+Flame · · Score: 2

      Of course it hurts. This isn't saying it doesn't hurt. It's saying that for people without your hair genes, it hurts even more, especially when spiciness is involved.

    2. Re:I don't think this is universal by Capsaicin · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This isn't saying it doesn't hurt. It's saying that for people without your hair genes, it hurts even more.

      Well it's saying that for people with our genes as a population it hurts less. Of course I (and OP) would have to borrow a blonde body for a while to be sure on an individual level, but it's apparent to me that I deal with pain better most people I know. I'd always put it down to stoicism though, but perhaps I am actually feeling less pain.

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    3. Re:I don't think this is universal by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0

      I have red hair and my wife has red hair.

      So why does your son look like Li'l Wayne?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    4. Re:I don't think this is universal by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      Both of us have somewhat thin hair. I wonder if those redheads with really thick hair might have something different enough going on to where their pain receptors are not as sensitive.

      Well, duh - when you whack someone in the head, thicker hair provides more of a cushion.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    5. Re:I don't think this is universal by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      I wonder if those redheads with really thick hair might have something different enough going on to where their pain receptors are not as sensitive.

      Redheads with thick hair are typically vain brunettes that dyed their hair red. Studies have shown Brunettes have more hair per inch than blondes- and redheads have the least.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  11. Gingers? by SecurityGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know, we've come a long way. We used to put people down for a host of things. About a century ago we got over the notion that women weren't smart enough to vote. Not so many decades ago being black and flirting with a white woman could get you killed. I'll bet more than a few of you are acquainted with the idea that "nerd" was not a badge of honor way back in high school. Like I say, we've come a long way, but it's somehow still cool to put down the "gingers".

    Grow up already.

    And not to be totally off topic, but this notion of people with red hair having a differing response to pain has been known for a long time. Wikipedia has references going back at least decade. I'm pretty sure I've known about this for longer than that. Finding older refs is left as an exercise for the reader.

  12. Capsaicin by enoz · · Score: 5, Informative

    according to researchers who injected capsicum, the active ingredient in chilies

    TFS is wrong, as specified in TFA the ingredient is capsaicin

    Cue the obligatory "you must be new here" for expecting editors to edit...

    1. Re:Capsaicin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps it was supposed to read "according to researchers who injected capsicum and the active ingredient in chilies".

      I imagine a capsicum injected into your arm would be quite painful.

    2. Re:Capsaicin by garyebickford · · Score: 1

      Well, not necessarily. It depends what they injected. Capsicum is the plant, and the extract from the plant. It is widely described, and a common herbal remedy. Capsaicin is the pure chemical. I Googled, and found both terms are common, and mean different things.) Since capsaicin by itself is incredibly strong, whatever was injected was probably in some dilute form so the test dose could be accurately measured, so it could have been either capsaicin diluted with alcohol or something, or (less likely, but still possible) it could have been the extract in oil or alcohol or something.

      I might have a better idea of which was actually used in the study if I RTFA, but this is slashdot.

      --
      It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
    3. Re:Capsaicin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Slashdot. Where well educated people would rather Google a term and begin a debate on it's semantics and uses, than click on the feature article and find the answer.
       
      I love you guys.

    4. Re:Capsaicin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is /. it really ought to be queue, as I doubt very much that there's anybody in need of a cue to say it.

    5. Re:Capsaicin by dbIII · · Score: 1

      according to researchers who injected capsicum, the active ingredient in chilies, into the arms of patients

      You think that's bad? Think about where they injected it when doing research on whether the stuff could cure bladder incontinence in men. You'd want a high pain threshold there.
      Maybe it worked because of the "will you stop doing it to me if I say I'm cured?" factor. :)

    6. Re:Capsaicin by dkf · · Score: 1

      "Capsicum" is the British/Australian English term for the fruit known in American as the bell pepper.

      That's because it's the Latin name of the genus including bell peppers and chili peppers.

      --
      "Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
  13. Prehaps it's natural selection pressure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    From being burned at the stakes more than the rest of us? Oh, wait...

  14. I question if this is cultural by Karmashock · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Are they testing someone in the same genetic pool that isn't a ginger? Because different ethnic groups are going to be conditioned to respond to and express things differently.

    Personally, I have brown hair and a very high pain threshold. Everyone in my family is the same way and none of us are gingers. I further don't think it's genetic in our cases. We have an ingrained and conditioned intolerance to whining in ourselves and others. It's just a family thing. We don't express it and we don't respond to it.

    So to take this seriously, I'd need to know they were doing an apples to apples comparison to remove cultural and ethnic distinctions.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  15. not in my circle by thygate · · Score: 1

    I put sambal on my bread in the morning, i so love that stuff, and I have black hair. I have yet to see any of my red friends try that.

    1. Re:not in my circle by Capsaicin · · Score: 1

      I put sambal on my bread in the morning, i so love that stuff, and I have black hair. I have yet to see any of my red friends try that.

      Yeah it's great on toast and I love it on peanut butter too. But sambals tend not to be that hot. Cominex' Sambal Olek, the most common one around, is fairly mild, you can eat it by the spoonful (tastes good anyway). And yes, I'm a redhead, but capsaicin tolerance is primarly mediated my exposure. My kid was eating pickled habaneros out of the jar at age 7 and he's snow-blonde (we built up via milder chillies like Jalapenos).

      You need to look at a sample of people large enough to average out differences in exposure to make any meaningful statement regarding some other attribute (eg hair colour) and Capsaicin tolerance. I doubt your circle is sufficient.

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
  16. Well, anedotal evidence is interesting by Zaldarr · · Score: 1

    I'm the only fair skinned redhead in my immediate family (and indeed, my closest redhead relation was my grandfather), and in regards to spicy foods, this explains something. Whenever I cook I always go with a heavy spice load, my family complains about it- all blondes and brunettes. I honestly thought they were just wusses.

    --
    I write professional videogame reviews! http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/
  17. investigated by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

    "...which were even investigated by MythBusters."

    Not to mention the more well known science show, South Park.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re:investigated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  18. I have a portion of the gene by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

    Beard turns ginger, hair is brown, English / Scottish / Irish heritage back a way.
    I can confirm my love for chili but my personal pain tolerance is probably one of the worst for any living adult male in existence. I can't take the most basic pain, excercise hurts too much, everything hurts too much. I have incredibly sentive ribs and hate being jabbed in them. The simplest of bumps hurt and I'm sure things shouldn't hurt this much.

    1. Re:I have a portion of the gene by Alotau · · Score: 1

      If you let pain bother you so much it will invade all aspects of your life. Before you know it, you'll be using different injury types for login names. Oh... nevermind.

  19. Inconvenient Truth by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 4, Funny

    Time to rethink all of your redhead BSDM fantasies.

    1. Re:Inconvenient Truth by Billlagr · · Score: 2

      For sure - if they can tolerate it more, ramp it up a notch!

    2. Re:Inconvenient Truth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not if the redheads are the tops....

    3. Re:Inconvenient Truth by buybuydandavis · · Score: 1

      All of them? Not gonna happen - I've got a day job.

    4. Re:Inconvenient Truth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      or if you're not dyslexic, the BDSM fantasies.

  20. Is this really better? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you think redheads are inherently different, well, you'd be right; they're better than you.

    The ability to feel pain is an extremely useful evolved capability. A higher pain threshold isn't necessarily a good thing.

    1. Re:Is this really better? by mister_playboy · · Score: 2

      Having the pain threshold be somewhat lower than the point at which physical damage occurs seems optimal.

      People born without the ability to feel pain struggle to stay alive to adulthood, which many would interpret as worse rather than better.

      --
      Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
  21. Re:So you met my exwife? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually I'd call bull on this one. My exwife ...

    Oh your ex wife! OK then we'll just disregard the all the studies with those unnecessarily large sample sizes then, shall we?

  22. The answers are out there by SpzToid · · Score: 1

    Finally science can explain Carrot Top.
    http://www.google.com/search?q=carrot+top

    --
    You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
    1. Re:The answers are out there by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      Finally science can explain Carrot Top.
      http://www.google.com/search?q=carrot+top

      I refuse to believe Carrot Top has a higher pain tolerance without arduous testing. Let me go grab my sledge...

      Oh, and I hear Gallagher was a red-head before he dyed it (what hair he has left) - let's test his pain tolerance too.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
  23. Explains something by medcalf · · Score: 3, Funny

    I guess that explains why my wife has rules about how much chili powder and cayenne I'm allowed to use in the chili.

    --
    -- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
    1. Re:Explains something by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cayenne I could understand - that stuff has great flavor, as a matter of fact, if you use enough of it. But chili powder? That stuff is only useful as flavor - it doesn't have enough heat to bother for that effect.

  24. Finally a Solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    My blond girlfriend says she is going to dye her hair tomorrow so she doesn't have to take Pamprin every month.
     

    1. Re:Finally a Solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am also possibly a natural blonde since I cannot spell blonde, but can't remember for sure.

  25. Redhead GF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    had a redhead gf one and she was awesome in bed. She spoiled it for every other woman in my life

    doofus here ended up marrying a blonde ..:D

  26. Capsaicin by TranquilVoid · · Score: 1

    "Capsicum" is the British/Australian English term for the fruit known in American as the bell pepper. The chemical in chillies is actually called capsaicin.

  27. Does not feeling pain make someone better? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pain is very useful, nay, required, to make animals take care of themselves.
    "If you think redheads are inherently different, well, you'd be right; they're better than you"
    Me thinks this was written by a ranga.

  28. Re:So you met my exwife? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    There's difference between an anecdote and a scientific study.

    Then again, you go to a chiropractor. A chiropractor who has a TENS machine.

  29. Re:So you met my exwife? by narcc · · Score: 5, Funny

    I even had a doctor's confirmation of this.

    Interesting. Please, go on.

    We went to the same Chiropractor.

    Fail

  30. Like a... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder if this has any relation to the phrase "I'ma beat you like a red-headed stepchild..."

    1. Re:Like a... by slackware+3.6 · · Score: 1

      No it is simply a case of the red-headed stepchild being such an obnoxious turd that the step parent(dad) want to smack the little turd in question upside the head. But what I really wanted to ask you is WTF is an I'ma?

  31. Pain tolerance, and 2 other attributes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My personal observation:

    1. Gingers also tend to get high from simple things like Aspirin.
    2. Gingers seem to have an improved sense of (magnetic?) north

    1. Re:Pain tolerance, and 2 other attributes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My personal redheaded comments:

      1) Nope
      2) Yes. I never lose track of direction.

  32. Better ? Why? by Tuqui · · Score: 1

    If you think redheads are inherently different, well, you'd be right; they're better than you.

    Who said that less pain is better?. People that not feel pain (analgesia disease), can't live normally.

    1. Re:Better ? Why? by ClioCJS · · Score: 1

      Too bad that's not what this is about, and your comment is thusly wholly irrelevant. There's a big difference between "less" and "none".

      --
      -Clio
      Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
      Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
  33. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  34. Orange (red-headed) cats appear to show the same by Btrot69 · · Score: 2

    I am currently the servant of an Orange Tabby cat. He's about as close to the cartoon Garfield as a real-life cat could be.

    First -- it seems obvious to me that the genes that make humans red-headed are the same as the ones that make cats orange -- the color is virtually the same and they have freckles on their nose and lips that darken as they spend more time in the sun.

    He is not a "scaredy-cat" like other cats. He only hides when he is the hunter. He regular stands up to dogs 5 times his size when they come onto his yard.
    This fearless seems to be normal for Orange cats -- anyone who has owned one will tell you the same.

    I have also noticed that he seems to be virtually immune to pain.
    When he was young, he learned that he should never turn his back on a dog -- because his tail got bitten ;)
    It should have been a painful wound, but he never got very upset about it when the vet and I cleaned and dressed it.
    I never deliberately hurt him -- but accidents happen -- and he never seems to be hurt.

    I have always suspected that his fearlessness might be the result of reduced sensation of pain.

    This might also explain the reputation for bravery that Lions have -- they are orange cats too !

  35. Questions about sample population by MisterSquid · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Red-haired women (FTA notes most studies have been conducted on female mice and female women) have a resistance to capsaicin. Compared to whom? Blonde-haired white people? Brown-haired white people?

    How about Koreans, NONE of whom have genetcially-derived red hair? Or Latinos? Or Vietnamese? One could to this all day.

    --
    blog
    1. Re:Questions about sample population by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      female women

      of the girlular variety?

    2. Re:Questions about sample population by Capsaicin · · Score: 4, Funny

      Red-haired women ... have a resistance to capsaicin.

      Oh that's terrible news. :(

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    3. Re:Questions about sample population by tehcyder · · Score: 2

      This story being posted on slashdot is pure comedy gold for you, isn't it?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    4. Re:Questions about sample population by jedwidz · · Score: 1

      It gets worse... all birds are completely are completely resistant to you. And reptiles.

    5. Re:Questions about sample population by hawk · · Score: 1

      > . . . female women . . .
      >Compared to whom?

      Umm, male women, perhaps? Or female men? :)

      hawk

  36. Moderator on Acid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh your ex wife! OK we'll just disregard the all the studies with those unnecessarily large sample sizes then, shall we?

    This in response to a bit of anecdotal evidence is a Troll, how?

  37. Well that explains the Vikings by BenJCarter · · Score: 1

    FTA:

    Research reveals that redheads:
    are more sensitive to cold

    ...
    In other respects, however, redheads turn out to be tougher than other people.

    Research has produced evidence that redheads are less sensitive to stinging pain in the skin.

    This was shown in tests where capsaicin, the active substance in chilli, was injected into the skin to produce pain.
    ...
    "Our tests showed that redheads are less sensitive to this particular type of pain. They react less to pressure close to the injected area, or to a pinprick. They seem to be a bit better protected, and that is a really interesting finding," says Professor Lars Arendt-Nielsen of the Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction at Aalborg University.


    Tough to melee a guy that doesn't feel pain as strongly as you. What if most berserkers had red hair? Due to their ironic sensitivity to cold, it probably wouldn't take much to push them over the edge after days of rowing the frozen oceans. I'll bet after leaving their warm yurts, they were even more pissed they hadn't left the Land of Ice and Snow as fast as the recruiter promised...

    [No redheads were intentionally slighted in the making of this post.]

    --
    For in politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. - Publius
  38. Re:Happy Monday from the Golden Girls! by Killjoy_NL · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The fifth golden girl was a female communist cosmonaut from the USSR :)

    --
    This is the sig that says NI (again)
  39. Evolutionary Response by Ginger_Chris · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Reduction in skin pain seems very useful when you're at a much higher risk of sun burn.

  40. I Dunno... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My dad is a redhead (pale skin, freckles and all) and he's a giant baby when it comes to pain.

  41. Re:I call BS by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 1

    redheads are also known to be less responsive to anesthesia, so that explains the dentist part.

  42. Re:I thought this had been covered several years a by Z00L00K · · Score: 2

    And if redheads are less sensitive to pain - does that include mental pain?

    This may lead to an explanation to why it is said that redheads are wilder than others. When they were penalized for doing something wrong when they were kids wasn't hurting them as much compared to other kids even though the penalty was the same.

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  43. Re:So you met my exwife? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I call bull on this being a troll. A TENS machine. Really. Come on. This is Grade A pseudoscience.

  44. Re:Orange (red-headed) cats appear to show the sam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    He is not a "scaredy-cat" like other cats. He only hides when he is the hunter. He regular stands up to dogs 5 times his size when they come onto his yard.
    This fearless seems to be normal for Orange cats -- anyone who has owned one will tell you the same.

    Confirmation bias.

    My cat's black and switches between tame and extremely vicious. It has also won fights with much larger dogs. Temperament is genetically biased but environmental in nature.

  45. Re:So you met my exwife? by martin-boundary · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are you sure she was really a redhead? There's a simple test you can perform, but sadly this comment box is too short to explain it to slashdot readers.

  46. We're computer geeks by dbIII · · Score: 1

    BSD it is.

    1. Re:We're computer geeks by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 2

      I'd stay away from OpenBSDM, lest Linus Torvalds call you master-beating monkey.

  47. obvious! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is an obvious ginger adaptation. Gingers get toasted to a crisp when stepping out in the sun. Only those that can withstand the immense pain can hope to breed after a day at the beach.

  48. FFS, don't use "gingers" in a story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Gingers" wtf? Might as well write "niggers", "spics", "chinks" in other stories.

    Redheads put up with enough bullying when growing up and into adulthood without casual prejudice like this.

  49. Gingers and Emmett Till by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Little known fact: Louis Till, Emmet's father was court-martialed and executed for the rape and murder of Italian women in Citavecchia.

    As for anti red-hair "Ginger" stuff, that's only thrown at White guys with red hair. You don't see it directed at: Christina Hendricks, Alyson Hannigan, or Lauren Ambrose. You do see that (often self-directed) at Conan O'Brien. Damien Lewis mostly plays villains because he's red-haired and male. When was the last time you saw a red-haired guy as the HERO in a movie or TV show?

    We still put people down (and yes Black people are perfectly capable of setting 13 year old White boys on fire on what appears to be a racially motivated attack as ugly as either Tills). We are not getting "better" and racial hatred, bigotry, and violence have always been part of humanity and embraced and practiced by Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, as well as Whites. Looking for cardboard heroes or villains will just get you disappointed. As will any utopian ideas of a best of all possible worlds.

    Let's be honest. Anti-Ginger stuff is just another code for "I don't like White guys with red hair." Its endemic in Britain (where it is thinly disguised anti-White racism) and Stone/Parker just ran with the stuff. If you don't want people calling say, Blacks names, or saying they have no souls, don't direct it at White people. Game theory implies sooner or later that stuff will get thrown back in a punch. Twice as hard, to quote the President.

    1. Re:Gingers and Emmett Till by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      When was the last time you saw a red-haired guy as the HERO in a movie or TV show?

      At least one of the Hardy Boys had red hair IIRC (not a TV show or movie, but bonus points for being old), Philip J. Fry, Ichigo Kurosaki, Rorschach was mostly a good guy (he had red hair in the movie at least, dunno about the original comic)....that's just off the top of my head.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    2. Re:Gingers and Emmett Till by RoccamOccam · · Score: 1

      When was the last time you saw a red-haired guy as the HERO in a movie or TV show?

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sarYH0z948 YEAAAAAAAHH!!

  50. Will be hard to check on that surgical pain. by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 2

    What the researchers should do next is look into the instance for people who have supposedly "woke up" during surgery being paralyzed yet still feeling the intense pain of surgery in progress.

    That will be hard to do. They normally give surgical patients a drug that inhibits the transcription of temporary to permanent memory. They might have been awake and suffering horribly - but they won't remember it afterward.

    This does two useful things: It reduces post traumatic problems. And it also reduces malpractice suits.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  51. Proof of Evolution by spacepigninja · · Score: 0

    Finally! I guess it was pretty obvious really, I mean, how else are Gingers supposed to survive the years of school yard bullying?

  52. No BRAIN/No PAIN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Which explains why most redheads are dumber than a box of rocks too.

  53. Re:So you met my exwife? by Chrisq · · Score: 1

    There's difference between an anecdote and a scientific study.

    Do you have the statistics to back that up?

  54. Ob. M.I.A by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeMvUlxXyz8&ob=av2e

  55. Re:So you met my exwife? by ksemlerK · · Score: 4, Funny

    My exwife was a red head and she had one of the lowest pain tolerances I've ever seen.

    Are you sure you didn't accidently try to give her anal?

  56. Re:So you met my exwife? RTFA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Redheads as a group have both higher and lower than average responses to different types of pain.

  57. Re:So you met my exwife? by michelcolman · · Score: 2

    My wife, who is a red head, has a very low pain threshold as well. Whenever she accidentally bumps into something, you get the impression that she's broken a bone or cut off a body part. In the beginning I jumped up right away, but now I got used to it so whenever I hear a loud, spine chilling scream, I barely look up anymore. She's always using the "red heads are more sensitive to pain" excuse, but now I can point her to this article! :-)

  58. Mutants by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What does this mean for those of us with ginger beards but different coloured hair? Am I some kind of mutant? Capable of withstanding a greater degree of pain but also still having a soul?

  59. That's natural selection for you by Evtim · · Score: 2

    All these years of torturing and burning must account for something! Are they fire-proof as well?

  60. Re:I thought this had been covered several years a by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ha, best of all the captcha is "placid".

    That's because the captchas were created by millions of monkeys typing, but somehow they ended up channeling Nostradamus, instead of the great american novel.

    My captcha's fanfold... I've had a cold this past week. (ooo-wee-uuu)

  61. Re:So you met my exwife? by ByOhTek · · Score: 1

    My sister is a redhead with low pain tolerance also.

    It's probably a linked gene, which is also mutated, which would mean, that redheads are more likely to have reduced pain thresholds compared to others.

    --
    Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
  62. Re:Orange (red-headed) cats appear to show the sam by dotancohen · · Score: 1

    it seems obvious to me that the genes that make humans red-headed are the same as the ones that make cats orange

    Cat colours are due to variations in the womb, not genetic. That is why cloned cats generally do not look like their gene donors.

    --
    It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  63. old old old news. boring by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    old old old news, boring. wtf is slashdot coming to posting old news these days regularly

  64. Ginger Ninja! by Etrigoth · · Score: 1

    This adds a whole new meaning to the term 'Ginger ninja'.

    --
    When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
  65. Re:So you met my exwife? by meyekul · · Score: 1

    sadly this comment box is too short

    That's what she said!

  66. Wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "according to researchers who injected capsicum, the active ingredient in chilies, into the arms of patients." - exactly, what were they trying to determine by doing this I wonder...

  67. Re:Happy Monday from the Golden Girls! by DigiShaman · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    A pal and a confidant! Sheesh. Get it right people.

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
  68. Re:So you met my exwife? by Nesa2 · · Score: 1

    Did you ever get to see what her natural hair color is?

  69. Re:Orange (red-headed) cats appear to show the sam by HopefulIntern · · Score: 1

    I am currently the servant of an Orange Tabby cat.

    Finally, a cat owner acknowledges his role in the human/cat relationship!

  70. Redheads are a social construct. by Baldrson · · Score: 1

    Someone had to say it.

  71. Re:So you met my exwife? by Migraineman · · Score: 1

    The linked. mutated gene means she's also more likely to have super-powers. Watch your back.

    My redhead sister may have low pain tolerance, but damn, she can certainly dish it out.

  72. Re:I thought this had been covered several years a by techsimian · · Score: 1

    I can anecdotally confirm the anesthetic resistance...I had a no more kids procedure done under local. It required two incisions, the first incision felt like tugging and was unremarkable otherwise. The second incision I felt, as in I felt the whole thing, but I didn't want to thrash for fear of having a larger than planned incision. The doctor noticed I was more tense and asked if I could feel "that". He asked a few more questions to confirm that I had indeed felt the whole damn thing, then he shot me up with so much local that I couldn't feel my thighs.

  73. Re:So you met my exwife? by Caesar+Tjalbo · · Score: 1

    Actually I'd call bull on this one.

    Do not confuse the summary with TFA.

    --
    "I'm not much interested in interoperability. I want substitutability. I want to be able to throw your software out."
  74. Re:I thought this had been covered several years a by JasterBobaMereel · · Score: 2

    Red hair can be caused by at least for different genes on MC1R Arg151Cys, Arg160Trp, Asp294His, and Arg142His and possibly others on HCL2

    And all of these are recessive so non-redhaired people can and often do have them too...

    So which are they testing, some of these, a mixture of these ... .. and what against, people without the recessive genes, people with some of the recessive genes ...?

    --
    Puteulanus fenestra mortis
  75. Re:I thought this had been covered several years a by NeuralSpike · · Score: 1

    Anecdotal evidence (i.e. my life) would say this is false. But then again that is a very small n.

  76. Re:So you met my exwife? by Nimey · · Score: 1

    The carpet does not necessarily match the drapes even on people who don't dye their hair.

    Get off my lawn, sonny.

    --
    Hail Eris, full of mischief...

    E pluribus sanguinem
  77. Re:So you met my exwife? by GaratNW · · Score: 1

    Go easy on him.He missed his homeopathic focusin-variant today.

  78. Mythbusters: busted again by MobyDisk · · Score: 1

    Mythbusters says redheads have a lower pain tolerance, but the linked article says the opposite. Mythbusters also claims that women have a higher pain tolerance than men, which is not true according to a recent Johns Hopkins study. (Probably the same one this redheads article is based on).

    Mythbusters is cool for certain things like "is it possible to do X" but not for statistical things. You need thousands of samples and good controlled environments to determine these kinds of things.

  79. Re:So you met my exwife? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    my exwife too, biggest wimp out there, scream and yell over the slightest bit of pain. Maybe its not about tolerance but about just being a female dog...

  80. RTFA? Huh? by Runaway1956 · · Score: 1

    The very title of TFA is, "Redheads feel a different kind of pain"

    That, I can probably accept. I can't accept that they have higher pain tolerance. I come from a family with a lot of redheads. I'm a brownheaded guy, who had red mixed in before it all went to gray. (Why does the red turn gray first, long before the brown started going gray?) Some things that bothered the hell out of me, didn't phase my redheaded sisters. Things that bothered them, I didn't even notice. Of course - women have been telling us forever that guys are sissies when we get sick, and that having a baby would kill any of us.

    Somehow, I suspect that it would be impossible to establish what "normal" is for any group of people, whether we considered race, complexion, hair color, gender, or whatever.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  81. Not actually red-heads? by Hierarch · · Score: 1

    So if I'm reading this article right, it's actually about the MCR1 gene, which produces melanin in the skin and also interacts with the nervous system. That would imply a very strong correlation with redheads, since they usually don't produce melanin very well, but not a perfect one. Are they just using red hair as a high-correlation classifier for test subjects, when what they really care about is very pale skin?

    Anecdotally, my wife has very red hair, but she also tans easily. (I'm the pale one.) Lithuanian and African-American ancestry interacted weirdly. I'd assume she has the normal MCR1 gene.

    * No, I didn't have a real point. I'm just seizing the opportunity to brag about having a beautiful red-headed wife.

    --
    --Somebody infect me with a .sig virus, I'm too lazy to write my own!
  82. Re:Orange (red-headed) cats appear to show the sam by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    Cat colours are due to variations in the womb, not genetic.

    No freaking way. I have a cat that has the exact same patterns as her father, down to the same brown spot on the right side of the nose. If it were down to womb conditions and not genes the chance of that happening would be infintescimally small. I can upload pics if you don't believe me.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  83. TENS by alexo · · Score: 1

    I call bull on this being a troll. A TENS machine. Really. Come on. This is Grade A pseudoscience.

    TENS machines do have legitimate uses.

    1. Re:TENS by karnal · · Score: 1

      Holy hell, warn some of us at work before posting that. Not that I mind reading up on it, but one thing I don't want to look at (at work or at home) is another man's junk.

      --
      Karnal
    2. Re:TENS by mattack2 · · Score: 1

      That's why you look at the URL in your status bar while hovering over the link, before opening it... (or whatever analogous UI your browser of choice has.)

    3. Re:TENS by cffrost · · Score: 1

      Holy hell, warn some of us at work before posting that. Not that I mind reading up on it, but one thing I don't want to look at (at work or at home) is another man's junk.

      Try this one instead: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Erotic_electrostimulation
      Better yet, install EFF's HTTPS Everywhere.

      There's no good reason to expose as much plaintext as possible to as many hops and packet sniffers as possible.

      --
      Thank you, Edward Snowden.

      "Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
  84. Bah! to the haters by cmdr_klarg · · Score: 1

    Redhead ladies get a an automatic +1 on my 1 to 10 scale (yes, some literally turn it up to 11) :D

    --
    THE SOFTWARE, IT NO WORKY!!!
  85. I'm so special! Look at me! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some Slashdot stories are just guaranteed to turn into a special-snowflake-fest in the comments, and I think this one is a record.

  86. Turmerics - Not Gingers by assertation · · Score: 2

    I don't understand how someone came up with the slang "Ginger" for redheads when ginger is yellow and red hair is closer to being or orange or the closer to the color of turmeric.

  87. Not feeling pain does not make one "better" by unassimilatible · · Score: 1

    "they're better than you."

    Really? Feeling pain is an evolutionary adaptation to something bad happening to you, like being on fire or being bitten by some creature, which tells a person "take corrective action immediately!" Having less of this "something bad is happening" response might be less annoying in daily life, but it certainly doesn't make one "better." Arguably, it makes one worse off.

    Some people cannot feel pain at all, and it leads to a very bad life. Children who cannot feel pain have trouble learning the consequences or risky behavior like falling or touching hot things. I saw a documentary on such a girl once, and she was regularly breaking bones due to her reckless behavior (jumping off of things, etc) and not feeling the pain. He parents had to watch her constantly so she wouldn't injure herself. She'd walk around with a displaced fracture and not even know anything was wrong.

    --
    Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
  88. Re:So you met my exwife? by Sulphur · · Score: 1

    There's difference between an anecdote and a scientific study.

    Then again, you go to a chiropractor. A chiropractor who has a TENS machine.

    This subluxation rates a ten.

  89. Red heads and pain suppression by rocket+rancher · · Score: 1

    I'm a red head, and while I've had my share of stupid nicknames ("The Towering Inferno" and "Flame Brain" being a couple of the more neutral examples) the one that I treasure the most was not derived from the color of my hair, but one I picked up when I was in the USAF during the Reagan administration. My fellow combat controllers called me the "Stoic" because of my apparent ability to suck up pain and complete missions. A guy who was a much better warrior than I could ever be gave me this tag -- and I treasure it today. It is interesting to see that my red hair may have had a hand in it. I've always been able to ignore pain and press on. This is anecdotal, I know, but I'll bet a more rigorous analysis might reveal some interesting corroboration for the findings in the study. As I recall, I was not the only red-head in spec ops -- in fact, one SEAL team that we did a joint op with was entirely red-headed. I don't know what the population distribution of red hair is supposed to be, but I'd bet that six guys with the same hair color in a job where ignoring pain is a very good talent to have is probably a significant correlation.

  90. Re:I thought this had been covered several years a by cyclomedia · · Score: 1

    That could still be physical pain, most of what we learn about the world and how to live and behave in it we learn from a very very young age by exploring it, climbing on things. Falling off stuff & getting stung by nettles and your response to that (and your parents, I tend to not make a big deal of it with my kids, encouraging them to brush it off) will absolutely shape your future attitude to risk in general.

    --
    If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.
  91. Re:No pain huh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My guess is that this is a product of nurture, not nature. They've built a higher pain threshold from all those beatings by their step-father(s).

  92. Re:So you met my exwife? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Science would be a lot more efficient if they just stopped once they found the result they were looking for.

  93. Vikings and Scotsmen by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    Kinda makes sense if you think about it.

    Nothing like warriors with high pain tolerances to make them effective berserkers.

    Now if they could only learn how to drink...

  94. As a redhead by doston · · Score: 1

    For me, it's not true about feeling more pain; if anything I'd say less. I can eat much spicier food than most, but that took years of conditioning with ever spicier food (finally working up to 5 star Korean), bar be it from me if Mythbusters covered this. My boss is a redhead and so is my one coworker (yeah, it's a bit weird); I asked them about this and they report the same things. Working in IT doesn't really expose us to much pain though OUCH MY FINGERS FROM ALL THIS TYPING!!! Here's a study you might see running across the AP newswire "Report: Redheads are confirmed to have redder hair than Africans"

  95. Re:So you met my exwife? by X0563511 · · Score: 2

    We went to the same Chiropractor.

    Fail

    Not necessarily. If you have an actual problem that they fix, then it was worth it, no?

    Crooked spine and pelvis... not crooked any more. I can walk/run for extended periods without crippling pain, now. I can actually move my neck around to it's fullest extent without hearing lovely grinding sounds.

    Of course, he didn't hook me up to magical machines. He looked at an xray, took some measurements, and did some tweaking, and took some more measurements. Same kind of thing any other doctor would do, I'd expect?

    --
    For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
  96. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  97. Re:So you met my exwife? by JTsyo · · Score: 1

    Maybe he thought it was a Tense Machine. Might have been confused on the phone when he ordered it.

  98. I don't buy it... by Jason+Straight · · Score: 1

    I know a few reds and not a damn one of them can handle anything spicy. Hell, one of them thinks spaghetti sauce is too spicy.

  99. Re:I call BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    NSFW: Mz Berlin - Kink.com. She is more than a bit enthusiastic about pain, you notice.

  100. Re:So you met my exwife? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I said it was intense but okay then he told me he maxed it out. The guy was 6' 8" and built like a linebacker, actually he was a weightlifter, so it was kind of a macho game to see how much I could take. He was surprised because my wife claimed she had a high tolerance and he said I was the one with the high pain threshold

    reads like a bad slashfic

  101. Opposite of my experience as an RN by wganz · · Score: 1

    It has been my experience in the past 17 years as an RN working in med/surg that "Gingers" experience higher levels of pain and require more pain medications than other patients. Have to admit that none of my patients had capsicum injected into their arms but all had typical medical incisions.

  102. Redheads Feel Pain Differently Than the Rest of Us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who the hell is Pain?

  103. Re:I thought this had been covered several years a by NicknameAvailable · · Score: 1

    So there's clearly something about MC1R that differentiates pain / killer response; but please stay off the soulless daywalker stuff. It's not helpful and just sounds juvenile.

    Firstly, the article is about Gingers, not Daywalkers - so we can't really touch on daywalkers in this post. Secondly - we already know neither Gingers nor Daywalkers have souls - so you bringing it up was actually pretty juvenile and a mechanism to start the debate up again when it has already been settled.

  104. Don't know about pain... by alreaud · · Score: 1

    But pleasure, damn... I think it's the hottest Caucasian 'tang! Absolutely bar none.

  105. Inappropriate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The jokes may be funny but they're not very friendly. Tolerance of anti-ginger jokes creates a culture of abuse where anyone who complains is labeled as 'someone who can't take a joke' as 'we don't mean it'.

  106. As a person with Red Hair... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't like where this thread is going...

  107. Ginja Ninja by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm a Ginger and I am proud of it. We, the soul-less day walkers, are also better than you in other ways.
    1) We do not bruise
    2) We have a tolerance for stupidity greater than most, which we need on a daily basis
    3) We are awlso grate spellers
    4) We are all descendents of Chuck Norris

  108. Re:So you met my exwife? by geekoid · · Score: 2

    They use magical thinking. Otherwise they would be a physical therapist or a orthopedic doctor.

    That's assuming what you say is actually true. You wouldn't be the first person to go to a chiropractor, be told lies about there spine, and when it got better through normal stretching and exercise claim all the benefit.

    Was he an MD? in some states they don't have to be. I man they'll wear a white coat and call themselves Dr.
    I'm can legally call my self a Dr. I got an online degree in religious studies. IN fact I can do several magical thinking based 'therapies' Not that I would, just an example how easy it is to get the public to give you credence.
      Doesn't make me a MD.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  109. Re:Orange (red-headed) cats appear to show the sam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "... as anyone who has owned one..."

    For this gross act of lese-majesty, you are demoted from the honored office of "cat servant" ( the highest that monkey-kind can aspire to!) back to "cat slave".

    You may be considered for reinstatement to "servant" status in three to five years.

    -The Cat

  110. Re:So you met my exwife? by X0563511 · · Score: 1

    They use magical thinking. Otherwise they would be a physical therapist or a orthopedic doctor.

    Well, true enough I suppose.

    That's assuming what you say is actually true. You wouldn't be the first person to go to a chiropractor, be told lies about there spine, and when it got better through normal stretching and exercise claim all the benefit.

    I've had the "real" doctors notice the problems, and I don't believe a placebo can fix something like that.

    Was he an MD? in some states they don't have to be. I man they'll wear a white coat and call themselves Dr.

    I'm can legally call my self a Dr. I got an online degree in religious studies. IN fact I can do several magical thinking based 'therapies' Not that I would, just an example how easy it is to get the public to give you credence.

      Doesn't make me a MD.

    Yea, he's an actual MD... or at least I thought he was. I'll double check next time I'm in the office.

    --
    For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
  111. Re:Orange (red-headed) cats appear to show the sam by dotancohen · · Score: 1

    I believe you, but I don't matter! If you do have evidence that the current thinking is wrong, though, I encourage you to contact a local university geneticist who might be able to bring your cats' situation to light of the community. He would be a better judge of the situation than I. You might have some valuable genetic evidence purring around the house!

    --
    It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  112. Re:Orange (red-headed) cats appear to show the sam by dotancohen · · Score: 1

    Follow up comment, see an explanation that I found right here on /. of all places:
    http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=51538&cid=5137772

    Attached to this story:
    http://science.slashdot.org/story/03/01/22/0534237/cloned-cat-not-a-carbon-copy

    --
    It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  113. Every cloud... by Palamos · · Score: 1

    But it's still a very very high price to pay for the pleasure of eating a hot curry!

  114. Re:So you met my exwife? by SockPuppetOfTheWeek · · Score: 1

    Yea, he's an actual MD... or at least I thought he was. I'll double check next time I'm in the office.

    He was, quite probably, a "Doctor of Chiropractic". This is not the same thing as a "Medical Doctor". An MD is board-certified by reputable medical institutions; a DC is certified by a Chiropractic College. They're their own thing, and they don't have to meet any of the standards set by the medical community, which leaves them free to practice whatever quackery they can successfully foist on people.

    Note that I'm not saying that Chiropractors can't help in some cases. I recognize that they can, in certain cases, but all-too-often Chiropractic is toted as a cure-all. It's up to the patient to figure out what percentage of it is pure hogwash, and what may actually help them.