Yes, it's been a while. Thank you to everyone who's sent fantastic stories over the last week, sorry they haven't been posted yet. I've had several dozen suggestions each for: The monstrously ugly steampunk guitar, the worms making music on a circuit board (circuit bending getting half a million views on YouTube? This old thing was never so popular) and the making of the '80s version of the Dr Who Theme music. I'm on holiday this weekend, but sporadic updates will be resuming soon. (Thanks to Mikey for the image. He doesn't think anyone else will get this joke, but I'm pretty sure you will)
Posted by Tom Whitwell.
Comments:
"worms making music on a circuit board"
Or to be more precise, worms tortured for your amusement, with sounds produced as a by-product.
If I attach a pair of electrodes to your balls, does that make your screams and the arcing sounds music?
"If I attach a pair of electrodes to your balls, does that make your screams and the arcing sounds music?"
It depends, would you be using my balls as a pair of oscillators or a set of capacitors in series?
More to the point, if this experiment made it so I could use my Bell-end as a theramin, I'd do it three times a night at $50 a head and always be sold out.
This device is probably working off of 3 volts with a very low amperage, and any shocks the worms might be getting could be compared to grabbing a door knob in winter. Also, this would be DC, not AC. Edison's original DC power grid worked off of 100 volts since that was considered "safe".
In the Milgram experiment, humans were subjected to 45 volts safely.
"If the subject still wished to stop after all four successive verbal prods, the experiment was halted. Otherwise, it was halted after the subject had given the maximum 450-volt shock three times in succession."
I love the concern for all of gods creatures, but a little reality would help too. As someone who designs effects pedals, I've taken my fair share of shocks from these things, it's not horrible. Hardly matches the lovely feeling of getting shocked by a mains outlet.
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3973354.html This "Electronic Worm Gatherer" works on 2 amps at 250 volts.
If the worms were being physically injured, it would show as white dots on their skin.
Besides, you'd absolutely hate the experiment where the shocked the H*** out of a flatworm, and then fed him to another flatworm to see if the second worm would have any memory (chemical) of being shocked. Oh, and they cut them in half to breed them...
As Monty Python might say... "When I was a lad we used to dream of being shocked by a synthesizer..."
While for the most part I agree with the second anonymous here, it's worth pointing out that in the Milgram experiment the people being shocked were actors and weren't actually being shocked.
My point, which is still valid, is that these Worms are being subjected to VERY low levels of electricity. Far less than used in commercial worm gatherers. (Did you read that part?)
In fact, I'm now off to try this same experiment in your honor... Who knows, maybe a worm slinking around a BD-2 pedal sounds good...
...that little worm is really getting some attention eh. If you're reading this mr Wriggly I'd like to offer my services as your manager. Free sparkly costume included.
Interesting dialogue on worm pain here: http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Foundations.Cognitive.Science2001/0062.html
Dr. Rose and other posit that worms and Fish lack the neo-cortical structure to feel what we term "Pain". They feel something, sure, but what constitutes pain?
"Contemplating changes to its animal protection law, Norway's government commissioned a study on pain. According to Reuters news service, earthworms' nervous systems are too simple to feel pain; their writhing on a fishhook is just simple reflex. Lobsters and crabs, likewise, experience no pain as they're dumped into pots of boiling water. Those conclusions were said to apply to most invertebrates."
Even delerious humans will react to stimuli and not feel "Pain" as they lack a sense of self. Anisthetic, even placebos can inhibit the Brain's perception of pain. Incredible as it may seem, pain is just an immaterial image ‘projected’ onto the screen of our self-consciousness.