View From The Porch: There is a fine line between brave and crazy...

Friday, April 08, 2011

There is a fine line between brave and crazy...

...and this guy couldn't see it with a telescope from where he's standing.

He has obviously had his blood replaced with ice water.

(via email.)

35 comments:

Anonymous said...: Holy Crap!

Just goes to show how well we adjust to our own version of normal.; 9:56 AM, April 08, 2011
LC Scotty said...: So is he looking towards the line from brave or crazy? The best view is the crowd of cobras all standing at attention watching him.; 10:04 AM, April 08, 2011
Bob said...: It sometimes is less dangerous than it might look. It all depends on the ethics of the snake owners. Cobras are a comparatively slow species, both in movement and in striking. Maltreated/starved snakes would be even more so.; 10:09 AM, April 08, 2011
Bubblehead Les. said...: Indy: "Snakes. Why did it have to be Snakes?"; 10:20 AM, April 08, 2011
Anonymous said...: In an interview he said he learn his job by working as a congressional page when he was younger.

Gerry; 10:51 AM, April 08, 2011
Ed Rasimus said...: I couldn't watch an entire two minutes. I didn't know I was afraid of snakes until right now. Indy was right!

Whatever they pay that guy isn't enough.

Are those eggs that the snakes have laid or eggs that they have been fed?; 10:55 AM, April 08, 2011
Marja said...: Maybe it's the same phenomena which makes people working on roofs and other high places neglect to use their safety harness, and then occasionally to fall: I have been doing this for ages and have never been bitten -> no problem, they don't bite.

Or he has already been bitten often enough to develop some level of immunity...

I actually like snakes (for me the 'eek!' species are some of the bigger bugs, although, who knows why, not spiders, them I can handle with no problems, as long as they are a non-venomous species anyway) , but since I don't like being bitten by anything, much less by something venomous, I definitely would not take that job.; 11:04 AM, April 08, 2011
Tam said...: Ed,

Heh.

I have known some people in my life who are the very definition of "unflappable": various pilots, door-kickers, surgeons, fire fighters, race car drivers... But this guy takes the cake. :); 11:08 AM, April 08, 2011
cj said...: Reminds me of a quote from "The Gods Must be Crazy":

"In this world of theirs, nothing is bad or evil. Even a poisonous snake is not bad. You just have to keep away from the sharp end. Actually, a snake is very good - in fact, it's delicious. And the skin makes a fine pouch."; 11:23 AM, April 08, 2011
NotClauswitz said...: Not only is he used to it, the snakes are used to it too - did that lady up on the wall just say, "You missed a spot!" in Siamese? Everything needs cleaning-out now and then, it's a dirty job.; 11:34 AM, April 08, 2011
Anonymous said...: Y'know.....RE: Tam's "unflappable" comment, I've done a few of the things she listed, and all require an advanced degree of "unflappability."

But unless you're dogfighting Me109s over the Channel or kicking in cave doors at Tora Bora, you've got a pretty good idea what volume of resistance you're facing, which gives you the opportunity to build a plan for dealing with it.

But this - I think Scotty, above, has it right - once awakened and alert, all those erect heads staring at you sorta exceed the maximum number of threats one individual can be expected to successfully deal with.

Then again, what passes for "normal" on this planet can be a really broad range sometimes.; 11:37 AM, April 08, 2011
aczarnowski said...: But it. He did. Wait. Did he? Uhm. Look over there! Holy crap. His back is turned. A conversation?

...shut down to prevent further short cicuits... ...please try again later...; 11:46 AM, April 08, 2011
Nancy R. said...: In flip-flops, none-the-less.; 11:49 AM, April 08, 2011
North said...: Should I have been laughing the whole time? The fact that it is, to him, unremarkable is what makes it remarkable.; 12:06 PM, April 08, 2011
Chas S. Clifton said...: Coincidentally, Steve Bodio has been running some true zoo stories from when he and friends worked at a zoo in Boston.

Watch out for the "special bond."; 12:07 PM, April 08, 2011
Mikael said...: The thai people also have a "if you die you die" attitude to life/safety. Which is why tourists sometimes end up electrocuted in hotel showers/pools over there.; 12:25 PM, April 08, 2011
Anonymous said...: Would that be a high-capacity snake pit?; 12:40 PM, April 08, 2011
og said...: I've never feared snakes nor have any issues handling them, but I don't have the reaction anymore to prevent from being bitten.

I have no issue handling or being bitten by non poisonous snakes, it happens to me fairly regularly, but knowing that I do get bitten by the non poisonous ones proves that I haven't the speed to deal with the dangerous ones.

Cold stacks the deck in your favor, but still, a potent neurotoxic like a cobra is nothing to fool with.; 12:49 PM, April 08, 2011
Kristophr said...: I'm betting these snakes have had their fangs broken off.; 12:57 PM, April 08, 2011
An Ordinary American said...: That's an awful lot of politicians to be cleaning up after. . .; 1:01 PM, April 08, 2011
Anonymous said...: I KNEW the economy was rough, but, DANG!

Ulises from CA; 1:34 PM, April 08, 2011
Anonymous said...: I wonder if he'll have a sudden, fatal, delayed-onset case of the willies one day.

Jim; 2:47 PM, April 08, 2011
Rabbit said...: Somewhere in Kentucky there's a small church that would like to extend a job offer to him.; 3:23 PM, April 08, 2011
Baddog said...: THIS is the guy that I want for Commander In Chief!; 3:47 PM, April 08, 2011
Matthew said...: Not to try to sound badass but, according to some Thai Recon Marines some years back, cobras are pretty mellow critters, not crazy aggressive like their region-mates. Mostly only dangerous if cornered and/or you don't know they are there. They don't "strike" per se, they lack the explosive muscles of a rattlesnake which can actually throw itself forward.

Cobras can only lift about half their body length and then drop it at pretty much 9.8m/s/s, there's not a lot of speed there. The "strikes" you see in the video are about all they can manage which is why they hood up and try to look big. Once they drop they are vulnerable afterwards.

So, picking short ones up by the tail is pretty safe as they can only hold up about half their body length. If you have them by the tail they can't/won't climb themselves to bite your arm (a mamba will eat your face if you grab it) and if your reach is longer than about half their length they can't hit your legs.

Anyway, cobras look cool and their blood does give you the manly virility of the cobra (especially mixed with copious amounts of bootleg Mekong whiskey) but if I had to pick a room of venomous Asian snakes to be in it'd be 3-5' cobras.; 3:58 PM, April 08, 2011
libertyman said...: Some helpful advice here. Don't have your phone in your pocket set on "vibrate" while watching this. And then have a call come in.; 4:18 PM, April 08, 2011
Anonymous said...: "He has obviously had his blood replaced with ice water."

Tiger Blood?

WV: nuangi
A fantasy movie about a museum full of animals coming to life that was rewritten by a crack team of writers from the New York Times.

WV after the fail: penonwar
The title of Jeff Spicoli's upcoming epic treatise outlining the Libyan War's effect on the global hashish supply.; 4:42 PM, April 08, 2011
atlharp said...: Not a pussy.....at all!; 4:52 PM, April 08, 2011
wolfwalker said...: a few minor comments...

Marja, a number of years ago I had a chance to interact with a doctor who knew a great deal about toxic critters and their bites, the treatment of which was a specialty of his. As of that time (so this may have changed), he wasn't aware of anyone who had ever been proven to have a built-up immunity to snake venom.

Kristopher, cobras, like many snakes, grow new fangs regularly over their lifetimes. You can de-venom a cobra -- the venom sacs don't regenerate -- but de-fanging it accomplishes nothing.

Other than that, I've nothing useful or interesting (and certainly nothing witty) to add.

(hmmm.... WV: 'bless'. Given the subject matter of the post, that seems slightly creepy for no explainable reason); 8:32 PM, April 08, 2011
Anonymous said...: wow, this is crazy!! I even got nervous from watching him...
but don't they milk the snakes? they take there venom away right? so even if he is bitten he only feels pain..

CRAZY; 8:56 AM, April 09, 2011
Anonymous said...: I bet that is one of the "jobs Americans won't do."; 10:52 AM, April 09, 2011
Anonymous said...: Mike Rowe can stop doing Ford commercials, there's another Dirty Job calling his name.; 12:36 PM, April 09, 2011
Crotalus (Don't Tread on Me) said...: Dayum! I like snakes, but that guy is a lot braver than I am. I don't mess with the venomous ones.

That's creepy, the way they're all looking at him with their hoods out.; 2:04 PM, April 09, 2011
Adaptive said...: I don't care if those snakes are slow, well fed, cold, have had their venom sacks removed, are trained, and the guy is immune to them. He's still batshit crazy. There's too many critters moving in too many directions to have even the hint of sanity there. And that's before I say the word Cobra (which turns the dial to eleven!).

I'd pay more attention than that guy if I were cleaning out a pen full of squirrels.; 9:47 PM, April 09, 2011
Kristophr said...: Wolfwalker: It makes them safe, for a while.

This is a common trick used by a lot of "snakecharmers" in India. The honest ones don't do it.; 1:23 AM, April 10, 2011