I think Sithen would like this.

Ganked from cavalaxis: A contraption!

Darwin in Darwin

One thing you've probably noticed about Australians is that we like to impress people by boasting about how deadly our snakes are. At the risk of being labelled un-Australian, I feel obliged to mention that this behaviour is not entirely honest. It's not that the snakes aren't deadly - while there's some scientific wrangling about the exact LD₅₀ numbers involved, there's certainly no argument that Australia has lots of snakes with extraordinarily toxic venom.

No, the dishonesty lies in the implication that these snakes make Australia a terribly dangerous place to live (and, thus, that we are all tremendously brave for not packing up and fleeing to Ireland). In fact, across the whole country, snakes kill an average of about three people a year. Part of that is due to the work of some very talented scientists, like the late Struan Sutherland and the Commonwealth Serum Laboratory, in developing effective antivenines, but a big part of it is that snakes simply don't have much interest in biting humans. When they do, they often deliver a 'dry bite', without injecting venom, as a warning. (Venom is expensive to produce - why waste it on something you can't eat?)

So, how *do* people get bitten? ( Like this! )

Any questions?

HP Spoiler

Ganked from quizzicalsphinx: click here for a purported Harry Potter spoiler. Which is quite likely a complete hoax, and even if it's genuine may be a character's mistaken perception, but either way it gives me something to taunt you with, and that's good :-)