Pages

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Decimalisation signaled demise of proud independent nation...


The day Britain lost its soul: How decimalisation signalled the demise of a proudly independent nation

By DOMINIC SANDBROOK
Last updated at 2:47 AM on 29th January 2011
Although we all have money worries, especially at a time of such economic austerity, few of us ever spare a thought for the coins that jangle in our pockets. We take them for granted; usually we barely even bother to look at them.
Yet next month will mark the 40th anniversary of one of the biggest ruptures in our recent past — a moment that marked the greatest transformation in the history of British money. 
On Monday, February 15, 1971, Edward Heath’s government formally abolished the old coinage that had served for generations, replacing it with a new decimal system inspired by Napoleonic France. 
Decimalisation: By 1971, Edward Heath, leader of the Conservative Party and the new man in Number 10, was obsessed with ­modernising Britain - and if that meant demolishing the legacy of the past, so much the better
Decimalisation: By 1971, Edward Heath, leader of the Conservative Party and the new man in Number 10, was obsessed with modernising Britain - and if that meant demolishing the legacy of the past, so much the better
Out went the shilling, the half-crown and the sixpence, with all their historic associations. In came a new, unfamiliar European-style currency — much to the outrage of millions of ordinary Britons.
Forty years on from ‘Decimal Day’, it looks a profoundly symbolic moment, marking the end of a proud history of defiant insularity and the beginning of the creeping Europeanisation of Britain’s institutions.
Like so many of the social and cultural changes of the Sixties and Seventies, it was remarkably undemocratic. Nobody ever voted for it; nobody ever asked the British people for their opinion.
Decimalisation was imposed from on high, the edict handed down by a political and intellectual elite indifferent to the romantic charms of history and tradition, but determined to turn Britain into a modern European state.
Like the reformers who wanted to revamp England’s historic counties, the planners who relished demolishing our Victorian architectural heritage, or those poor souls who wanted to sign up to the euro (and who have gone remarkably quiet), the decimal- lovers fantasised about a modernised Britain with all the quirks ironed out — a larger, colder version of Belgium.
Yet they were not the first reformers to dream of scrapping Britain’s age-old coinage. Even the Victorians had their fair share of decimal enthusiasts, although their campaign never caught on.
Now decimal currencies are the norm, we often forget they represent something relatively new. As late as 1789, only one major European country, Russia, had a decimalised currency, the rouble, which was divided into 100 kopeks.
But when the French Revolution broke out that year, radicals saw their chance to sweep away the legacy of the past.
A bank within a shop in Oxford Street, London, changes the old pounds, shillings and pence into decimal currency (file photo)
A bank within a shop in Oxford Street, London, changes the old pounds, shillings and pence into decimal currency (file photo)
Six years later, the French introduced the franc, divided into 100 centimes, which was to become their national currency for the next two centuries.
As Napoleon’s armies rampaged across Europe, the French took their strange new decimal notions with them. And although Britain stood firm against the Corsican dictator, there were, as so often, more than a few starry-eyed idealists who wanted to copy the French example.
In 1841, a small group of Victorian do-gooders even founded the Decimal Association to campaign for currency reform, and in 1859, a Royal Commission considered but rejected the idea, judging it had ‘few merits’. But the decimal enthusiasts never gave up the fight. 
In Anthony Trollope’s Palliser novels, the character of Plantagenet Palliser is a passionate advocate of decimalisation. But although he eventually becomes Prime Minister, he never gets his plan put into effect.
The truth is that during Britain’s imperial heyday, politicians and ordinary people alike were too closely attached to their national traditions to consider such a radical change. 
Like so many of the social and cultural changes of the Sixties and Seventies, it was remarkably undemocratic. Nobody ever voted for it; nobody ever asked the British people for their opinion
Like so many of the social and cultural changes of the Sixties and Seventies, it was remarkably undemocratic. Nobody ever voted for it; nobody ever asked the British people for their opinion
The pound sterling, the half-crown, the shilling and the sixpence were too deeply embedded in our national life; they were symbols of a country set apart, proud of its island status.
And this sense of British exceptionalism was not confined to the political Right. In his splendid essay The Lion And The Unicorn, published when Britain stood alone against the Nazis in 1940, the Left-wing George Orwell wrote that there was ‘something distinctive and recognisable in English civilisation … bound up with solid breakfasts and gloomy Sundays, smoky towns and winding roads, green fields and red pillar-boxes’.
Like so many of his compatriots, Orwell saw Britain as a land apart from continental Europe. ‘When you come back to England from any foreign country,’ he wrote, ‘you have immediately the sensation of breathing a different air. Even in the first few minutes dozens of small things conspire to give you this feeling. 
The beer is bitterer, the coins are heavier, the grass is greener, the advertisements are more blatant.’
Yet in the decades that followed, Orwell’s Britain became increasingly unfashionable. By the beginning of the Sixties, with the colonies declaring independence and the economy entering a long-term decline, our political and intellectual classes were losing confidence in Britain’s deep-rooted traditions.
Having rejected the chance to join the nascent Common Market in the mid-Fifties, Britain’s governing elite now became convinced only European membership could reverse the decline. And in a bid to show their neighbours just how modern and European they were, they turned their attentions to the national currency.
In 1961, Harold Macmillan set up the Halsbury Committee to examine the prospects for decimalisation. It did not report until five years later — by which time another impatient moderniser, Labour’s Harold Wilson, was prime minister.
Lord Fiske, Chairman of the Decimal Currency Board, pictured in 1970 with one of three posters which were displayed as part of an intensive campaign of official information and explanation of decimal currency in time for D Day Februay 15, 1971
Lord Fiske, Chairman of the Decimal Currency Board, pictured in 1970 with one of three posters which were displayed as part of an intensive campaign of official information and explanation of decimal currency in time for D Day Februay 15, 1971
Having promised to build a ‘new Britain’ in the ‘white heat’ of the technological revolution, Wilson liked the sound of anything that would make him look youthful and progressive. His was a government obsessed with the new, from new road signs, postcodes, speed limits and breathalysers to the reform of the divorce, abortion and homosexuality laws. 
Going decimal, he thought, would show French president Charles de Gaulle just how keen he was on all things European.
So when his Chancellor, Jim Callaghan, asked him about decimalisation, Wilson simply nodded and said: ‘Why not?’ — an extraordinarily cavalier and undemocratic way to approve such a sweeping change. 
When the Cabinet considered the matter a few days later, it was accepted with virtually no discussion at all. So, in just a few moments, without the British people ever being asked to express their opinion, the coins that millions of Britons down the centuries had known and loved had been condemned to the scrapheap. But what should replace them? Most banks and businesses wanted a shilling system, with ten shillings as the basic unit. But the Bank of England was adamant that to preserve sterling’s international reputation, Britain must stick with the pound.

By 1968, the changeover was underway. In April that year, the first 5p and 10p coins entered circulation, larger than they are today being the same size and weight as the old shilling and the florin or two shilling coin. A year later they were joined by the hexagonal 50p coin, which replaced the ten-shilling note.
Gradually, the old coins began to disappear. The old ha’penny vanished in 1969; the much-loved half-crown, part of English life since the reign of Henry VIII, went a year later.
All of this, however, was merely a prelude to the big changeover on Monday, February 15, 1971, ‘Decimal Day’ — chosen because February was usually a quiet month for banks and businesses.
By now a new Conservative government was in charge. But in many ways, Edward Heath, the new man in Number 10, was even more radical than Wilson. 
Already looking forward to taking Britain into Europe, Heath was obsessed with modernising Britain — and if that meant demolishing the legacy of the past, so much the better.
In the run-up to Decimal Day, Heath’s ministers spared no effort to preach the virtues of the new currency, even commissioning an unforgivably awful song by Max Bygraves, Decimalisation. The BBC organised a series of five-minute information shows called Decimal Five, while ITV put on a supremely patronising little drama, Granny Gets The Point, showing a baffled old lady learning how to use the new coins.
On the big day itself, the transition went off without a hitch. British Rail and London Transport had gone decimal a day early, while most major stores were prepared. 
Harrods had an army of ‘decimal pennies’, girls in rakish boaters and blue sashes, to help confused shoppers, while Selfridges boasted a troop of girls dressed in ‘shorts and midi split skirts and other suitably mathematically costumes’.
Yet like so many of the transformations of the late Sixties and early Seventies, from the demolition of the old city centres to the abolition of hanging, decimalisation went ahead in the face of widespread public opposition. Polls showed barely four out of ten people liked it; in London’s West End, so-called ‘anti-decimal terrorists’ handed out leaflets denouncing the government’s failure to consult public opinion.
Many people were worried that going decimal would allow stores secretly to put their prices up. Almost certainly this was an urban myth, for with inflation already at a staggering 9.4 per cent, prices were soaring anyway.
Yet it is not hard to see why so many were upset. The elderly remained highly suspicious of the new money. Many even insisted on carrying ‘Decimal Adders’ around the shops to work out the difference between old and new, although by the standards of modern calculators these were laughably clunky and cumbersome. 
Yet for millions of people in the early Seventies, decimalisation was merely another symptom of a world that seemed to have cast out all tradition, all familiarity, all reassurance, all order: a frightening world beset by inflation, terrorism, crime and delinquency.
The truth was that Orwell’s ‘distinctive and recognisable’ England was disappearing. 
A year later, Heath’s government ripped up the map of the British Isles, abolishing historic counties such as Rutland and inventing new, entirely artificial entities like Avon and Cleveland.
And on New Year’s Day 1973 came one of the biggest changes in our entire history, as Britain joined its decimalised partners in the European Community. Outside its Brussels headquarters, the Union Jack flew for the first time — appropriately enough, upside down.
Just as its opponents had predicted, decimalisation was an expensive business, costing an estimated £120 million (roughly £4 billion today). And just as they had predicted, it proved merely the thin end of the wedge.
Bit by bit, the distinctive traditions that had marked British life during Orwell’s lifetime began to disappear. Under European law, metrication soon followed decimalisation, with kilograms and metres slowly ousting pounds and feet.
Today, most of us simply take our decimal currency for granted. Nobody born after the late Sixties can remember the old coins so familiar to previous generations. And few recall that for hundreds of years there were 240 pence in the pound, not 100. It might seem a trivial change. Yet as the debacle of the euro has proved only too well in recent months in Greece and Portugal, a nation’s currency is its very life-blood.
Just like the planners who were flattening our historic city centres at that very moment, sacrificing tradition on the altar of modernity, the men behind Decimal Day were indifferent both to public opinion and to the great weight of history. 
Decimalisation not only drove a wedge between the generations, giving millions of older people the sense they had been transported into a foreign land. In a deeper, symbolic way, it helped to cut us off from our history.
Of course we will never go back to the old currency — not least because, as even traditionalists would have to admit, the decimal system is a lot easier to grasp.
For good or ill, we have become a much more European country — a land of duvets and wine bars, pavement cafes and continental breakfasts, foreign holidays and Italian restaurants.
But change never comes without a cost. And in the disappearance of George Orwell’s Britain, the land where the coins were always heavier than anywhere else, there was surely much to mourn.
On that grey, drizzly day 40 years ago, we might have gained a shiny new streamlined currency. But we also lost something rather more profound: a little bit of our national soul.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1351563/The-day-Britain-lost-soul-How-decimalisation-signalled-demise-proudly-independent-nation.html#ixzz1CRFcRlYT

Bizarre council rules for employees... No talking about weather or babies.

Bizarre council rules for employees

Carlisle City Council has ordered employees to clock out if they want to talk about the weather, holidays or babies, but it's not the first local authority to implement bizarre rules for its staff.

A council has ordered employees to clock out if they want to talk about the weather, holidays or babies after accusing them of treating the office like a holiday camp
The email states that if workers want to hold conversations about issues such as the weather, babies or holidays - they should clock out Photo: ALAMY
Earlier this month it was reported that a council was to tell staff that "intimate behaviour during work time'' could be deemed gross misconduct and lead to disciplinary action.
Staff at Fenland district council, in March, Cambs, must declare any "close personal relationship'' with a colleague to their manager in writing, the policy proposed.
The information would then be recorded on their personal files – a move which critics claimed was "Orwellian". At a later meeting the idea was rejected and has not been introduced.
One councillor labelled the proposal the "bonk and be booted out" policy and said it had come from the "database of daft ideas". Another said publicity about the plan had turned the council into a "laughing stock".
In December 2008 it was disclosed that Hampshire County Council hadbanned a lollipop man from tying tinsel to his stick because it was a health and safety risk.
The council took the action after a member of the public complained that the school crossing patrol officer had placed extra tinsel around the edge of the circular sign.
Kevin Simpson, 45, said he thought he had been told to remove the tinsel because there were concerns it had obscured part of the sign.
In the summer of 2009 a council banned its workers from cutting grass on slopes because it was deemed to be too dangerous.
Fife Council ruled that employees weren't allowed to use a mower on an incline of more than 15 degrees in case it toppled over and fell on them.
The council said the ban was necessary to meet health and safety requirements.

Red wine wonder pill to go on sale combats heart disease and cancer.


The £1-a-day red wine wonder pill to combat heart disease and cancer

By SOPHIE BORLAND
Last updated at 12:49 AM on 29th January 2011
Antioxidants: A supplement producer claims its 'wonder pill', which includes a substance found in red wine, can prevent heart disease and cancer
Antioxidants: A supplement producer claims its 'wonder pill', which includes a substance found in red wine, can prevent heart disease and cancer
A £1-a-day red wine wonder pill that claims to ward off heart disease, cancer and diabetes is to go on sale in Britain for the first time.
Makers Biotivia claim the resveratrol supplement – derived from an anti oxidant found in grape skins and naturally present in red wine – is as beneficial as exercise.
They say the drug can also protect against Alzheimer’s as well as delaying the ageing process and tackling obesity-related health problems.
But other experts warn that the benefits are unproven in humans and that it should not be used as a replacement for regular exercise and a healthy diet.
Wine lovers, meanwhile, might argue that there is more enjoyment in cracking open a bottle of the real thing
Some studies have indicated that resveratrol could work by preventing the build up of fatty deposits in the arteries caused by high cholesterol. The pill goes on sale at Nutri Centre health stores next month. On Biotivia’s website it costs just over £30 for a month’s supply. 
It is already one of the most popular supplements in the U.S. but until now had been available in Britain only over the internet.
However, although some positive results have been found in animal studies, there has been no published research to show it works in humans.
Even the animal studies used doses equivalent to 2,000mg a day, while doctors advise that humans should take a daily dose of no more than 50mg. 
And they warn that it can cause unpleasant side effects such as insomnia, joint pain, diarrhoea and acne.

    Biotivia claims the pill can help prevent cancer by triggering the death of malignant cells. They say it effectively protects against a high-fat, high-calorie diet and even though people would still be overweight they would be less likely to suffer from related health risks.
    Some studies have shown it can help reduce inflammation inside the arteries and prevent blood cells sticking together and forming a clot.
    Dr Alex Barber, a GP in Hampshire said: ‘The benefits are widespread and it effectively protects against a high-fat, high-calorie diet. It protects against cardiovascular disease by lowering cholesterol and reducing blood pressure.
    ‘If you can afford it, it’s got to be a good gamble.’
    Health benefits: Studies have suggested drinking red wine can protect the body from building fatty deposits
    Health benefits: Studies have suggested drinking red wine can protect the body from building fatty deposits
    Other claims made by Biotivia are that it enables the body to function on less sleep and that animal studies have shown that it improves stamina.
    Studies on mice which were fed the pill have also shown that they didn’t gain weight despite eating fatty foods.
    Scientists stumbled on the drug 20 years ago when trying to establish why France has low rates of heart disease. 
    Some theories suggested that by drinking comparatively high quantities of red wine, the French were protected from the build-up of fatty deposits.
    Research in 2009 showed the benefits of resveratrol, which is also found in raspberries, blueberries, cranberries and peanuts, extended to helping people to think clearer.
    Northumbria University researchers found adults given the supplement performed better in mental arithmetic tests.


    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1351632/The-1-day-red-wine-wonder-pill-combat-heart-disease-cancer.html#ixzz1CQnFyarp

    Mass breast-feeding sit-in at shopping centre-Canada


    The ultimate flash mob: Mums stage simultaneous breast-feeding protest after woman is kicked out of shopping centre

    By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
    Last updated at 12:21 PM on 29th January 2011
    Dozens of mothers organised a ‘nurse-in’ protest, simultaneously breast-feeding at a shopping mall in Montreal this week in reaction to one of their number being earlier ejected from another Mall.
    The Canadian mothers are up in arms after a woman was asked to leave a shopping centre where she was breast-feeding her child. With the help of social networking sites like Facebook and microblogging sites like Twitter, mass protest was organised.
    About a hundred mothers attracted a curious crowd as they sought retribution for a clothes store that had thrown out 36-year-old Shannon Smith, a mother of three, for breast-feeding earlier this month. 
    Protest: Mothers participate in a demonstration in front of a clothing store in a shopping mall in Montreal, Canada. A mother had been thrown out of a shop earlier in the month for breast feeding her child
    Protest: Mothers participate in a demonstration in front of a clothing store in a shopping mall in Montreal, Canada. A mother had been thrown out of a shop earlier in the month for breast feeding her child
    While on a shopping trip on January 5, Mrs Smith’s youngest child began to cry and she moved to a semi-secluded children’s corner and nursed the baby under a blanket.
    However Mrs Smith was ordered to stop by an employee of the store, called Orchestra, leaving her surprised and upset.
    She was so angry, the following day she created a blog, called breastfortheweary.com.
    Around 60 mothers attended the 'nurse-in' in the shopping mall to express their right to breast feed in public
    Around 60 mothers attended the 'nurse-in' in the shopping mall to express their right to breast feed in public
    Breast for the Weary: Mrs Smith set up this blog to vent her ire, and it received a massive reaction
    Breast for the Weary: Mrs Smith set up this blog to vent her ire, and it received a massive reaction
    'I'm p*ssed,' she wrote. 'My older kids were sitting in their stroller watching the movie when my youngest got hungry. 
    ‘So I fed her. She's five months old, and she eats breast milk. From my actual breast. Shocking, I know!'
    One solitary post attracted almost 7,000 hits and a day later a Facebook group had been created for the nurse-in on January 19.
    Media across Canada and in the U.S. soon caught wind of the story, and it sparked a national debate over whether Mrs Smith or the employee had been correct.
    Some in favour of the employee said that breast-feeding is tantamount to eating lunch and even urinating – even going as far as to say that it should only happen in public bathrooms, or specially created rooms in malls.
    However, mothers and parents retaliated, and argued that their young ones deserve to eat whenever, and that breast-feeding is convenient and healthy.
    Rebecca Coughlin, 30, who came to the nurse-in with her six-month-old twin daughters, told AOL: 'I don't think there's any reason women should be relegated to a room.
    ‘It's something that we should be encouraging women to do. The last thing we should do is create a stigma around it.'
    Another one of the nurse-in mob, 40-year-old Frances Moxant, said: 'I think that, basically, you should be able to do it any time and anywhere. 
    'Even my parish priest tells us to go ahead and do it in church. Jesus was breast-fed - he wasn't bottle-fed. So it's definitely all right.'
    Mrs Smith was enthused by the large turnout and said she had been shocked by the frenzied reaction to her blog.
    'A lot of people are pro-breast-feeding, and they don't talk about it because they just think it's normal,' she said.
    Orchestra has since apologised to Smith, blaming the mistake on a poorly trained new employee.


    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1351338/Mothers-stage-simultaneous-breast-feeding-Canada-woman-kicked-mall.html#ixzz1CQlkRK9M

    Friday, January 28, 2011

    Henry VIII mural uncovered during 15th century home renovation...

    A medieval mural depicting Henry VIII has been uncovered by a couple renovating their home

    A unique medieval mural of Henry VIII has been discovered by a couple renovating their Tudor home.

    Angie Powell, 57, and her husband Rhodri, 56, uncovered the 20ft wide, six ft high, wall painting as they peeled back wallpaper and mortar from their grade II listed home.
    The priceless picture, which shows the monarch sitting on his thrown wearing his crown and holding a sceptre, is thought to have been painted shortly after the house was built at the turn of the 15th century.
    At the time it was the home of Thomas Cranmer, the Archdeacon of Taunton who went onto become the Archbishop of Canterbury and helped Henry break from the Catholic Church and set up the Church of England.
    Though the artist is unknown, it is thought to be unique.
    The only other known mural of the King, painted in the Palace of Whitehall, was destroyed when it burned down in the 16th century.
    Michael Liversidge, former head of history of art department at Bristol University, said the discovery was "totally fascinating" and of "enormous importance and significance".
    "It would have been an expression of loyalty," he said.
    "Cranmer could have done it as a tribute to Henry and that would make it an object of great importance and significance. It is a unique image."
    Mrs Powell and husband Rhodri have lived at the house near Taunton, Somerset, for about three years.
    After the discovery, they brought in the experts who removed layers of plaster and mortar to clean up the image.
    Mrs Powell, a children's author, said they discovered the mural while redecorating.
    "When we saw the eyes appear out of the plaster it was a real moment," she said.
    They had been removing wooden panels from the wall with a view to painting it.
    "It is a presence and you do feel there's just something there behind you looking over your shoulder," she said.
    "When people come in, he grabs the attention."
    Ann Ballatyne, a conservator, said: "This is quite special. I've not seen anything like it and I've been working on wall paintings since 1966.
    "I've not seen anything as magnificent as this."
    Cranmer was chosen to be Archbishop of Canterbury in 1533 and immediately declared Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon void, and four months later married him to Anne Boleyn.
    With Thomas Cromwell, he supported the translation of the bible into English.
    In 1545, he wrote a litany that is still used in the church.
    In 1549, he helped complete the book of common prayer.
    After Edward VI's death, Cranmer supported Lady Jane Grey as successor.
    Her nine-day reign was followed by the Roman Catholic Mary I, who tried him for treason.
    After a long trial and imprisonment, he was forced to proclaim to the public his error in the support of Protestantism, an act designed to discourage followers of the religion.
    Despite this, Cranmer was sentenced to be burned to death in Oxford on 21 March 1556.
    He dramatically stuck his right hand, with which he had signed his recantation, into the fire first.

    These animals will kill you in seconds...

    These deadly animals will kill you in seconds

    22 January 2011 21:48
    Everyone knows that big, mean animals can kill you.

    Most people with common sense try to avoid creatures with big teeth and claws and eyes that view humans as a potential next meal.

    Lions and sharks and bears and rhinos, slithering jungle snakes, chomping alligators and crocodiles, and even jumping fanged spiders are to be avoided at all costs.

    Yet thousands of people lose their lives every year to harmless-looking animals that can kill or paralyze a human in a matter of moments. These are the secret killers that strike out and steal away a person's life when least expected.

    Many of the dead and dying are vacationers, often visiting exotic, adventurous spots featuring enticing food and drink, great weather, bright sunshine...and a handful of death lurking around the next corner.

    The insidious golden poison frog

    The last thing you might see before you die...
    Many people that come across this tiny frog think it's cute. Some even want to touch or pet it.

    Usually that's the last mistake they ever make in life because their life is over.

    Looks cuter than a King cobra, huh? Don't let it fool you!

    The harmless looking critter is the most poisonous vertebrate in the world. It secretes a deadly toxin through its skin.
    Those foolish enough to touch the frog instantly absorb the poison it excretes. It rapidly travels through the bloodstream attacking the central nervous system. Within minutes the brain is unable to transmit any signals through the nerve network causing terminal paralysis.

    Worse, the vagus nerve—the main nerve from the brain to the heart—is finally shut down causing immediate heart failure.
    Even touching leaves or twigs that the frog has rested on can bring quick paralysis and inexorable, numbing death.

    The damn thing looks like it wants to be petted!

    Deadly data facts: One milligram of the frog's poison can kill 10 to 20 people. One gram of the horrendous toxin is enough to kill up to 15,000 people.

    The colorful cone snail

    Some can't resist the shell for their collection

    Tourists visiting islands or the coastal waters of the tropics and Southern Hemisphere sometimes meet up with the cone snail. When they spot it they're thrilled, and the shell of the snail is so beautifully formed some people decide to snatch it up off the seafloor and take it back home with them.

    If they do that the odds are the snail will remain at its home while the tourist returns to theirs in a coffin.

    Poison harpoon tooth ready to kill

    The cone snail protects its shell—and itself—with a deadly harpoon tooth. The tooth is like a hypodermic needle that is designed to ward off an attack by striking out and injecting a fiery toxin into the body of a predator. A human trying to pick up the snail and take it home qualifies as a predator. The snail responds instinctively.

    A snail can fire its harpoon tooth in any direction; some snails have multiple harpoons.

    The deadly toxin is the same as that found in other ocean foes like the blue-ringed octopus and the puffer fish. The nerve poison can ruin your whole day and probably end your life.


    Deadly data facts: The puffer fish is the delicacy prepared by Japanese chefs and eaten by crazy Asian businessmen whoevery once in awhilefall face forward, dead, onto their dinner platewhile eating it. No one eats the cone snail.

    The five-inch blue-ringed octopus


    What could be more cute and cuddly than the tiny blue-ringed octopus? At least some people think so. They're in for a shock though, if they're stupid enough to touch it.

    The shimmering, multi-colored octopus does look like a living, moving work of art. It makes its homein tide pools on the coasts of Australia and Japan.

    When divers happen upon it, the poor little thing seems so docile and harmless, after all, it's only about five inches in length and the tentacles are smaller than a pencil.

    It's one of the deadliest creatures on the planet and carries enough venom in its poison glands to kill 26 humans horribly.
    With a bite worse than the feared Black Momba snake, this little killer will attack immediately if it feels threatened. Divers that accidentally step on it are dead within minutes.


    Deadly data facts: No known antidote exists for the blue-ringed octopus venom. The toxin is a nerve poison that paralyzes, just like the cone snail and puffer fish, but the concentration is much stronger and it's always lethal.

    A pretty, tiny frog; an alluring cone-shaped shell; a cute octopus...seeing what these things can do, lions and tigers and bears don't seem quite so frightening after all...