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geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: tp4tissue on Sun, 25 January 2015, 04:31:19

Title: Poison tasters in real life..
Post by: tp4tissue on Sun, 25 January 2015, 04:31:19
So, in the movies, they only show up for 3-5 seconds before the food is handed off to the final guy..

In real life.. I'd assume poison testers would test it for much longer?
Title: Re: Poison tasters in real life..
Post by: suicidal_orange on Sun, 25 January 2015, 04:39:41
I think they are more to confirm that the restaurant hasn't knowingly put poison in the food rather than to actually check for poison.  If they wanted to do it properly the target would need a live video feed of the preparation including someone eating all the ingredients, but some can't be eaten raw so there isn't much time for it to take effect before the target eats the meal, otherwise the food would be spoiled.

It's a pointless thing to do anyway - just use something that you need a lot of (the whole portion) and your tester survives while the target does not :))
Title: Re: Poison tasters in real life..
Post by: tp4tissue on Sun, 25 January 2015, 05:37:43
Hrrrmmm.. all good points..

I wonder why they didn't use animals perhaps.. like mice..

Title: Re: Poison tasters in real life..
Post by: rowdy on Sun, 25 January 2015, 22:04:04
In the movies, a poison would need to take effect immediately before the audience lost concentration on that plot line.
Title: Re: Poison tasters in real life..
Post by: tp4tissue on Sun, 25 January 2015, 22:38:06
In the movies, a poison would need to take effect immediately before the audience lost concentration on that plot line.

They should have this giant array of mice for poison testing..

If anything I'd think mice would be more sensitive to poison because they're smaller..
Title: Re: Poison tasters in real life..
Post by: PointyFox on Sun, 25 January 2015, 22:49:14
Poison doesn't have to be evenly dispersed through all the food.  It can be in a tiny area such as inside a capsule of some sort or wet and surrounded by a dry ingredient.  It can also be like a 2 part poison where both parts are harmless by themselves but combine to form the poison when both are eaten. 
Title: Re: Poison tasters in real life..
Post by: tp4tissue on Sun, 25 January 2015, 22:53:12
Poison doesn't have to be evenly dispersed through all the food.  It can be in a tiny area such as inside a capsule of some sort or wet and surrounded by a dry ingredient.  It can also be like a 2 part poison where both parts are harmless by themselves but combine to form the poison when both are eaten. 

Hmmm..... good point....

How do modern kings keep from being poisoned..
Title: Re: Poison tasters in real life..
Post by: intelli78 on Mon, 26 January 2015, 14:12:28
Tastes some poison
Title: Re: Poison tasters in real life..
Post by: rowdy on Mon, 26 January 2015, 15:08:51
Kinda reminds me of this (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=62853.0).
Title: Re: Poison tasters in real life..
Post by: jdcarpe on Mon, 26 January 2015, 16:17:40
How do modern kings keep from being poisoned..

They spend a few years building up an immunity to iocaine powder.

(http://i.imgur.com/h3Pi1vh.jpg)
Title: Re: Poison tasters in real life..
Post by: Novus on Mon, 26 January 2015, 19:29:37
Why poison when you can just drone strike?
Title: Re: Poison tasters in real life..
Post by: tp4tissue on Mon, 26 January 2015, 19:33:00
Why poison when you can just drone strike?

because then they'll know the US did it..  we got the best drones.