Another Darwin candidate

Defender · Post by **Defender** » Wed May 19, 2004 4:29 pm

Apparently this guy tried to pet the jaguar in the Albequrqe zoo...

http://www.kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=s ... TOPSTORIES

Nexus_One · Post by **Nexus_One** » Wed May 19, 2004 4:35 pm

shoulda lost his whole hand for being that stupid

Liquid Fire · Post by **Liquid Fire** » Wed May 19, 2004 5:10 pm

Someone's been drinking from the fountain of stupid. (Actually just the drinking fountain 20 feet to the left of the jaguar exhibit)

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Wed May 19, 2004 6:54 pm

Let's picture the scene shall we?

Drunk with the presence of "wild" animals, this zoological society member decides to "get closer to nature" by feeding Manchos (The Jaguar) through the wire netting of his cage. Unfamiliar with the speed of big cats, he is bewildered and confused when his hand comes back with one finger less than it went in with.

At least he didn't try to retrieve the finger!

Jeff250 · Post by **Jeff250** » Wed May 19, 2004 8:46 pm

Heh I was just there a couple weeks ago.

Defender · Post by **Defender** » Thu May 20, 2004 9:51 pm

Jeff250 wrote:Heh I was just there a couple weeks ago.

And did you feed the large, carnivorous predators too?

Jeff250 · Post by **Jeff250** » Thu May 20, 2004 10:42 pm

No, but I did find the signs saying not to throw coins into the monkey exhibits bizarre. What are they afraid of, the monkeys developing a free market society?

Or perhaps a commune... I suppose that they would have more to fear from that.

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Fri May 21, 2004 12:06 am

probably afraid that the monkeys will pick up the coins and chuck them at you at high velocity. Coins are much more damaging than poo...

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Fri May 21, 2004 10:26 am

You must have never seen that episode of mythbusters Lothar, coins are harmless when thrown (off the top of the empire state building).

Avder · Post by **Avder** » Fri May 21, 2004 12:23 pm

Eh? Got a link somewhere that explains the physics of a penny tossed off that building?

Defender · Post by **Defender** » Fri May 21, 2004 12:45 pm

A penny in freefall, and a penny being hurled by a gorilla move at quite different velocities Krom.

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Fri May 21, 2004 2:00 pm

A penny in freefall reaches terminal velocity fairly quickly. Dropped off an airplane, it will do no more damage than dropped off the top of a small apartment building. This is because accelleration due to gravity is balanced by wind resistance -- the penny never exceeds terminal velocity.

A penny being thrown by a gorilla, though, exceeds terminal velocity right away, and begins to decelerate. Depending on the time to impact, it can be fairly painful. Ever had someone chuck a penny at you from across the room and leave a welt? Now imagine if that person had the arms of a gorilla, and was chucking quarters at your head from 6 feet away. OUCH.

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Sun May 23, 2004 8:36 pm

Krom wrote:You must have never seen that episode of mythbusters Lothar, coins are harmless when thrown (off the top of the empire state building).

Yeah, it'll only tear through your skin and bounce off your skull itself.

Vader: Watch the Discovery channel sometime.

They show Mythbusters repeats all the time. That episode is bound to come up again. (Hell, Adam modded a BB gun to fire pennies just for the hell of it! What's really funny is that Jamie modded a air nailer to fire pennies too....and shot Adam in the ass with one.

)