A short article appearing in New Scientist 27/07/02. This would certainly been a winner for the Darwin Award if the victim has suceeded in killing himself.
UNDERGRADUATE stupidity knows no bounds. In an attempt to impress his or her class mates, a student took a sip of liquid nitrogen to prove that it is safe. It isn't. Within two seconds, the victim had collapsed in intense pain, unable to breath, and eventually passed out. All-night surgery ensured.
"My entire upper gastrointestinal tract was badly scarred and perforated," the happless student recounts in an annonymous letter to the journel Chemical Health and Safety (vol 9, p4). "They had removed part of my stomach and had my entire digestive system, top to bottom, running on machine power for a while." The expanding gas also collapsed one lung. Eight weeks later the student was discharged from hospital. A little wiser we hope.
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Also in the same issue, the following article appears:
DOES MICROSOFT REALLY EXIST?
We only ask because of statement in the manual for the Microsoft Natural Pro keyboard. It says: "The names of companies, products, people, characters and/or data mentioned herein are fictitious and are in no way intended to represent any real individual, company, product or event, unless otherwise noted."
The only company mentioned in the manual is Microsoft Corporation.
