Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Will the Brits End Up Switching to Chopsticks?


This report reads as if  it came out of the Onion, but sadly it did not.

Some U.K. doctors are calling for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives to reduce deaths from stabbing, reports the BBC.

A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase - and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.


The researchers said there was no reason for long pointed knives to be publicly available at all.

They consulted 10 top chefs from around the UK, and found such knives have little practical value in the kitchen.

Are the Brits headed toward chopsticks? Maybe, until someone gets stabbed in an eye with one, then its bare hand eating.



And once they are down to eating bare hands, they can focus on ditching toilets in favor of out houses, in the U.S. alone, there are 40,000 toilet related injuries each year.

Sadly the anti-risk freaks don't realize that the total elimination of risk is impossible in this world. They tend to focus on absolute rather than trade offs. There have probably been people who have died tripping over their shoe laces. Should we ban shoe laces?  A world without risk is impossible. Those who want to ban this, that and the other thing are simply dictating what risk levels all of us should be at it. It is very elitist. Indeed, get a load of the fact they asked "the 10 top chefs from around the U.K." about the need for pointy knives. Well, pass the grey poupon dijon mustard. If you look at the market for pointy knives, it tells you that people do want them, for whatever reason, regardless of what the "10 top chefs," say. That's why manufacturers make them.

(ht Travis Holte)

15 comments:

  1. South Park already nailed it with the "Toliet Seat Security" episode.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, it was "Toilet Safety Administration"

      Delete
  2. That article made its rounds a loooooong time ago. Date is on the top: Thursday, 26 May, 2005.

    Still, it goes to show that stupidity is timeless.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Britannia !
    About time a group of "Heroes" stood up to the long pointed knife lobby !

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ummm, that BBC article you link to is from 2005? I live in England, and long kitchen knives are still legal. Though I agree with your wider point about modern governments' approach to risk.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Putting it Bluntly
    09/25/10 - Throckmorton's other signs - A surgeon's blog [edited]
    === ===
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    It turns out that a while back there was a study that showed there may be a decrease in accidental needle sticks in OR personnel if blunt needles were used, because they were less likely to penetrate a surgical glove. It was even recommended that they be used in some closures. On more careful examination, the real reason for fewer needle sticks was that the blunt needles were useless and pushed to the side.

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  6. Yes, by all means we must ban kitchen knives, especially the Ginsu assault knife. The assault knife lobby (National Ginsu Association) is constantly pitching its deadly wares on TV to an unsuspecting public. There needs to be a law!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Knives are all ready restricted in the UK.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFVkzYDNJqo

    ReplyDelete
  8. "Long pointy knives" (eh?) are banned from your person already in the UK. We're permitted by our overlords to carry a non-locking, folding knife with a maximum 3-inch blade. If it's fixed, or the blade locks, or is over 3-inches, that's verboten and you go to prison if caught.

    Even then you need to prove good reason to have a small folding knife (the burden of proof is reversed). If you're in a tent then fine, if you're in a pub you're in trouble.

    I assume the "long pointy knife" description is from the same school as "the long gun" that the Connecticut Medical Examiner said was used at Sandy Hook.

    ReplyDelete
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