Needy tree
I didn’t go to have a look at David Blaine when he supposedly starved himself in a box whilst in London. I was in London at the time, but I figured it was nothing special… people have gone without food for longer, mostly because they had no choice… anyway, he could have been cheating.
Now water, there’s a fast I’d like to see him do. Apparently the average human can last only several days (depending upon heat/humidity etc.). I think he should try 40.
That said, I did see that a Nepalese Buddhist teenager is claiming to have not had a drop for six months. The scientist in me remains skeptical.
Sleep deprivation is, however, a far more legitimate sport. The world record stands at 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes, according to the Australian National Research Project, although no names are given.
It is known that Randy Gardner managed a rather impressive 264 hours… which puts my meagre 60 hour stint to shame.
Of course, David Blaine went without sleep many a night suspended in a box by the Thames. As a nation we were angry about the Iraq war and he supplied us with a clear American target on which to vent our collective frustrations… I think it worked too.
Perhaps, after he’s been water-fasting for 40 days, the next time you do something wrong, you should send us a sacrificial entertainer in a perspex cell.
Am I the only one that thought of a light bulb when looking at the “Death” label, and didn’t wonder why there was a light bulb? It seemed like such a natural image…
I did too, but didn’t realize it totally until you said something.
I don’t know if that’s funny, or just morbid.
It’s funny AND morbid.
I can see it now too… I’ve had a thing for lightbulbs recently, in a platonic manner, I really like them as an object, the mixture of glass and metal and electricity… they’re like miniature skyscrapers.
Skullbulbs would be similarly ace.
I like this new take on the need’s tree. Although I think on my need’s tree the Internet would be high up on the list somewhere.
That’s a given, I mean there’s no point in mentioning it… alongside oxygen it would have thrown the whole scale out.
Waitaminute… you need love more than water?
Hehehe, sounds like a challenge to me – I bet you can’t die of loneliness faster than I can die from dehydration :-p
That sounds like a challenge we’d need Ben in to make good on.
Unfortunately, The Flowfield Unity’s resident test pilot is busy destroying the LHC, The Great Wall of China and the concept of of ambiguation (in that order)…
We need me for what now?
Ahh, Agent Ben, I see you are back from project Hadron. Congratulations on sucessful completion of the mission.
Apparently Q has some tools to help you with phase 2 – ‘The long wall home’. I believe he is calling it a ’shovel’.
Yes, yes I do… I’m that needy.
Although adoration will work as a substitute, my methodone, so to speak.
I don’t understand how deprivation is a magic trick/illusion. Is he trying to say that he has magical powers because he can withstand torturous conditions for a little bit longer than other people? How is that magical?
I think we should tie David Blaine to a chair and punch him in the danglers for 5 days straight.
Not as a magic trick. I just don’t like that guy.
When Paul McCartney turns up to lob eggs at you, you know you’re a prick.
Honestly. I don’t think there’s a single person in Britain who likes him.
Actually.
Better make that the world minus his mum.
That masked magician guy totally debunked his ice stunt on that show where they ruin the magic tricks. I always think the test of a good magic trick is when you know how it’s done but you still think it’s cool. I don’t even think Blaine’s tricks are cool when I don’t know how they’re done. For all I know the guy has super powers but he’s still a total douche.
That’s awesome. : )
Again, Joe, I can’t agree with you more. I love magic, and I love knowing… but if a trick is still cool…
Take the Penn and Teller version of the cups and balls trick. They break the three main rules of performing magic – Repeat the trick, tell people how the trick is done… and perform the cup and balls trick with see-through cups – and yet still it’s a joy to watch as they do it so well that even with narration and clear plastic you still can’t quite work out how it’s done.
I hear that Blaine has recieved a rather poor reception for his latest suspension stunt. Claiming that he was going to remain hanging upside-down for 60 hours only to reveal that he meant ‘a total’ of 60 hours: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7635202.stm
Isn’t Blaine at it again, with hanging up-side-down or some whatnot?
He is indeed. Fortunately it’s over now.
Perhaps we should encourage him to give up ‘magic’ for 60 years… that too would be a good stunt.
I’m not sure that hanging upside down for 60 hours constitutes either magic or endurance. Again there are people all over the place who have had to endure similar states. It does appear that he’s replicating the interrogation techniques of Guantanamo…
That looks alot like a Ishikawa Diagram.
Actually, the whole comic seems like a Root Cause Analysis of why I will die.
I suppose that was the basis for the idea… an up-turned Ishikawa – well spotted.
It’s far darker if you read it that way though. Here are the things you need that kill you.