Comment

Comment by zeeman barzell on April 1, 2009 at 5:26pm

I'll have a bowl of yellow chicken curry and a McDonald's fillet-o-fish for desert.

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on April 1, 2009 at 5:25pm

@robin: I love biscuits and gravy! But I've had to give up wheat, as I think I am severly gluten intolerant. I miss breads so much. I can only have the sprouted grain kind, which seems to be find for ppl like me.

I love bacon, filet mignon, and cream cheese brownies as well. Peanut butter brownies are awesome, too.

Comment by zeeman barzell on April 1, 2009 at 5:21pm

My favorite is the guy that just wanted 1 bag of assorted Jolly Ranchers.
I guess if they let you finish your meal before the switch is flipped, that is a smart choice.

Comment by robin on April 1, 2009 at 5:17pm

Wow... I think mine would include a bacon-wrapped Filet Mignon, biscuits and gravy, macaroni and cheese (preferably my Mom's recipe), sushi, a chocolate chip cookie and cream-cheese brownie. :) No veggies on the way out, thanks.

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on April 1, 2009 at 5:14pm

Zeeman, you have way too much time on your hands. It's funny that that would even be online. You can find anything these days.

Hey everyone, what would your final meal be? I'm not sure I can answer that myself. I'm trying not to eat meat now, so I can't say a rare steak.

Comment by zeeman barzell on April 1, 2009 at 4:57pm

I spent hours reading through this.

http://web.archive.org/web/20031202214318/http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/finalmeals.htm

Now I'm hungry.

Comment by Фелч Гроган on April 1, 2009 at 3:17am

Did you know that the platypus is poisonous?

And how - double bummer: morphine doesn't help.

For a shy little animal, the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) can cause a lot of grief. Tucked away on the back legs of mature males are a pair of short spurs each hooked-up to a venom gland that makes a viciously painful toxin.

Platypus spurrings of people are rare, but the select group who have survived the trauma (often fishermen trying to free irate monotremes from their nets) report pain strong enough to induce vomiting which can persist for days, weeks or even months. The pain is resistant to morphine and other pain-killing drugs and anaesthesia of the main nerve from the spur site is often the only way to relieve the patient's suffering.

A witness to one of the first recorded platypus spurrings made these observations:

"... the pain was intense and almost paralysing. But for the administration of small doses of brandy, he would have fainted on the spot: as it was, it was half and hour before he could stand without support: by that time the arm was swollen to the shoulder, and quite useless, and the pain in the hand very severe." - W.W. Spicer (1876)

Professor Philip Kuchel, from Sydney University, says there are at least 25 components in the platypus venom, including a protein that lowers blood pressure causing shock, digestive enzymes called hyaluronidases and peptidases that dissolve body tissue helping the poison to spread, and a protein that increases blood-flow to the spur site causing severe swelling. The slight acidity of the venom adds further sting.

But the special ingredient in platypus venom that accounts for its outstanding pain-inducing qualities is thought to act directly on nerve cells that register pain, called nocioceptors. Greg de Plater, who discovered the compound recently at the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra, says it works a bit like capsacin (the active ingredient in chillies that makes them taste hot) by stimulating electrical activity in the pain cells.

Why this placid animal swims around with such a nasty toxin hidden in its back legs is still something of a mystery - the platypus doesn't use its spurs to catch or kill prey as far as anyone can tell. Cliff Gallagher, an emeritus professor studying the platypus at Sydney's Taronga Zoo, says the toxin is most often used in deadly skirmishes between rival males to stake out territory and also as an "excruciatingly painful" defence mechanism.

Study on the toxin is continuing and, ultimately, Greg de Plater hopes an understanding of how the different components of the platypus venom work could lead to new treatments for chronic pain sufferers.

Comment by Benjamin S James on March 31, 2009 at 11:00pm

Did you know that the platypus is poisonous? It has poison barbs on its elbows.

Comment by Creature on March 29, 2009 at 9:02pm

www.phreeque.com

Comment by Фелч Гроган on March 29, 2009 at 8:50am

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