Thursday 2 September 2004

Don't try this at home.

In fact, don't try this anywhere at all, and it'd probably be wise to steer clear of anyone who might.

So, naturally, I poured myself a glass and took a shot. Simple: Swallow, blow smoke out nose and mouth and impress everyone at the party.

Within about two seconds, I had collapsed to the floor, unable to breathe or feel anything other than intense pain.

Ambulance arrives. Police arrive. Trip to hospital. Admission. Try to explain to ER staff exactly how something like this happens. Then I pass out.

I wake up next morning connected to many machines, some beeping, others performing more important functions like digesting my food and breathing for me.

Turns out that, in accordance with popular belief, you really should not drink [liquid nitrogen].


Even better, though, in the comments on the incident here:

The scene is the undergraduate engineering Physics I class reserved for like the top 5% of math SAT scorers. There was the standard treatment of Newtons laws, and of course that calibur of nerds could recite it already in the 6th grade, so it was to be a real quick lesson. A really long balloon, like six feet long was to be inflated using a compressor and let fly around the auditorium, illustrating Newtonian physics principles(3rd law?). Anyhoo(IMAO rocks), the compressor didnt work. So somebody said, 'Well use the gas spigot' (This was one of those chemistry building auditoriums with the obligatory natural gas spigots). And of course, somebody else '...And light it!' And the professors eyes lit up and he said 'Yeahhhh!' and so it was to proceed like that.


... with hilarious consequences.

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