TFW you realize you are in the prescence of a space cadet

[sasha_feather]

Volunteering at humane society today. A newer employee, J, is a young man who plans to someday open his own veterinary practice. I don't quite have a handle on him yet as a person. Today he said the job as a admitting tech was "too easy" and he's sometimes bored by it. So he's goofing around with the lab supplies and says, "I wonder what would happen if you injected yourself with alcohol. Like, I know you'd get drunk, but how fast?"

Me: "Well, what kind of alcohol is it?"

J: "It's just regular alcohol."

Me: *looks at label* "Um, no. That is isopropyl alcohol. It is not the same as ethanol. Do NOT do that."

It is amazing that human beings have survived as a species much less come to dominate the planet.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Yeah well, this is one engine of random variation, right?

Add a little isopropyl to his blood stream and maybe they'll be a valuable mutation.

[sasha_feather]

Maybe a Marvel comics plotline!

[lilysea]

Eeeesh.

On the one hand, maybe he was just joking, with no intention of following through.

On the other hand... eeeeeeeeek.

It is amazing that human beings have survived as a species much less come to dominate the planet.

There are youtube videos by two men who patted/squeezed a fricking *blue ringed octopus* with bare hands. While it was flashing it's "I am cranky" colours. Those octopi have enough venom to kill 26 adult humans...

[sasha_feather]

omg! Some people just don't seem to have much in the way of self-preservation instinct...

[lilysea]

Even the BBC wildlife doco guy was poking the blue ringed octopus with a very short stick till it repeatedly flashed cranky, with bare hands

a) it could have climbed up the stick easily

b) after poking it repeatedly and making it cranky, he held his bare hand just above the surface of the water, almost touching the water - you know those things can move FAST, right?

[naomikritzer]

My family visited Everglades National Park in March. (It was awesome.) While we were there, we saw a couple of crocodiles. Something I hadn't realized until I saw them in the wild is that alligators look like very large toothy lizards and crocodiles look like dinosaurs. Also, alligators look like they could bite you and make you super unhappy and crocodiles look like they could ACTUALLY EAT YOU FOR LUNCH AND COME BACK FOR SECONDS.

There were two crocodiles hanging out by Flamingo Marina.

1. One was beyond a barrier (that applied only to humans, like orange cones or something), just off a path that apparently led to staff housing. As we were hanging out at a good distance admiring it, this guy who apparently worked at the park came walking along. (He wasn't a ranger. I think he worked at the store.) He was holding one of those large cans of iced tea. We all looked at the croc, and he told us how he really wanted a better picture of it than he could get from behind the barrier, and he was allowed to go down that path because he was an employee, but gosh, that was a really big crocodile, but wow, he really wanted a good picture...

He was one failed wisdom roll away from "here, hold my iced tea." But the croc slithered down into the water before guts overcame sense.

2. There was also a croc basking down by the water, on the boat landing. A couple of dudes in a canoe paddled up to him and some guy who was standing nearby dared them to try to touch it. When they weren't tempted, he offered them $500 if they'd touch it. At this point Ed got out his phone and started recording. The guy tried to touch it, but when he got too close, the croc dived back in the water and swam away.

So yeah. YEAH. OMG HUMANS, YOU HAVE NO SENSE OF SELF-PRESERVATION, WHAT THE HELL.

[sasha_feather]

OMG! Is this a dude thing? Possibly a young dude thing? Hilarious and scary at the same time.