Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2018 October 12

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October 12

Drinking human blood

As a matter of curiosity, in general what are the effects and especially the health risks of drinking human blood? FreeKnowledgeCreator (talk) 09:43, 12 October 2018 (UTC)

The consumption of blood as food is not uncommon; there are tribes that have long taken blood from cattle as one might take milk, due to lactose intolerance not having been bred out of their heritage from millennia of milk-drinking. However, as that article notes, there is a risk of excessive blood consumption (I assume from iron toxicity). Now human blood is another ball of wax, due to blood-borne disease. I haven't checked quantitatively how the risk of infection from blood compares to the risk of infection from semen, but conceptually you can compare risks of oral sex, bearing in mind that the dosage potentially could be different. Wnt (talk) 10:30, 12 October 2018 (UTC)

Some human societies drink blood (Hematophagy) or use it to manufacture foodstuffs and delicacies, see Blood as food. However note religious prohibitions and vampirism. DroneB (talk) 12:07, 12 October 2018 (UTC)

A medical or possibly chemistry textbook once told me those vampire wannabes could only have a pint (or was it quart?) in their stomach cause more causes vomiting (a US pint is 473 milliliters, a lot less than the 2 liters of food needed to cause vomiting). Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 14:34, 14 October 2018 (UTC)

Crystal methodist

Reports say that the Securities and Exchange Commission have filed court papers stating that the offer of Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, to purchase the shares at 4 dollars 20 cents each is related to the date April 20, which is significant in marijuana culture. What happened on April 20? 92.8.223.143 (talk) 16:07, 12 October 2018 (UTC)

I don't think this really belongs at the science desk however given the protection I guess some misplaced posts are to be expected. Anyway, if you mean why is 420 and 20 April associated with cannabis culture, our article 420 (cannabis culture) explains. According to the article, nothing in particular happened on 20 April. The association began because of the time 4:20 pm. The association with 20 April arose later due to the association with 4:20 pm and then 420 and so April 20th. BTW, AFAIK Elon Musk did not offer to purchase any shares at $4.20. Musk suggested privatising Tesla with an offer of $420 per share [1]. Note the absence of a decimal separator in that number is correct and intentional. Nil Einne (talk) 17:34, 12 October 2018 (UTC)

Shucks. And we all though Musk was a closet head. But talking of "high finance".... here's the UK's celebrated Crytsal Methodist. Martinevans123 (talk) 17:42, 12 October 2018 (UTC)

The Daily Mail gives a plausible-sounding explanation here ([2]) - supposedly a 20% premium is standard for taking a company private, which worked out to $419, and he rounded it off apparently because the "420" reference made it funny to his girlfriend. Note the tweet was made in the morning of August 7, so there were no other joke references aside from the extra dollar a share. Wnt (talk) 11:12, 13 October 2018 (UTC)

Ah-ha! So we can all blame Grimes for such an inspired choice. Too bad we have WP:DAILYMAIL (?) Martinevans123 (talk) 11:27, 13 October 2018 (UTC)