Well he could got stung by a stingray. :I

I do think this should stay for the reasons already mentioned. There is a distinct qualitative difference between something like this and "Watch Man Eaten By Alligator!" or the eventual "Watch Steve Irwin Get Stung!"

Earlier this year, there was a similar controversy about a haunting documentary called "The Bridge" which is based, in part, on a New Yorker article about people who commit suicide from the Golden Gate bridge. I considered posting the trailer on VS, but it is a very blurry line between understanding the pain that motivates such an act and exploiting the images of the suicides themselves.


New Yorker link - http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?031013fa_fact
The Bridge trailer - http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/tixSYS/2006/filmguide/event_np_trailer.php?EventNumber=1903

Ya know, in retrospect I have to wonder if all this hype is dangerous. He is being revered in death for his actions in life, and I must take a moment to reflect on his behavior as an animal handler. This post won't make me popular, but I have to pontificate. ;-)

He was wildly popular with the kids, and he often - very often - didn't use the best safety in the presence of animals. Remeber him dangling his baby over a crocodile? Is this the best way to model behavior for kids?

The reality is, he wasn't careful. That, in my book, is a form of disrespect to the animal. In order to have been stung, he must have been relatively close to the stingray...the barb is located halfway down the tail, which means he was probably almost right on top of it. He invaded the stingray's comfort zone. It couldn't see a swimmer above it, and probably thought it was a shark. The truth is, it was simply protecting itself. Irwin should have known better.

Here's some info: http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/149/01/Russell.pdf#search=%22%22giant%20stingray%22%20%2Blength%22

So, be safe, all you Coral Reef swimmers. And shuffle those feet.

Just heard on the news that Steve Irwin has died after being stung on the chest by a stingray. Is this a prescient video? A case of synchronicity? Foreshadowing? Or, maybe just a funny commercial?

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of the uncommented downvote, having been stung quite a few times myself. I do agree with plastiquemonkey that some people see only two voting options: up or down. No neutral.

If we do keep the downvote, I prefer giving out a certain number of downvotes per week (three strikes sounds like plenty to me) instead of a ratio. I'd rather see them used sparingly to get rid of utter crap than to be used for anything that doesn't match a given user's taste.

Which brings up a related point I've been meaning to suggest: if the neutral "vote" is, indeed, a vote, then I'd like to see stale videos in the queue expire.

After a certain period of time in queue, a video's just gone stale. It won't get anymore well-deserved votes. It's time to just call in the executioner and send it on its way. Would you say 10 or so days is enough time to drop a video from the queue?

Just watching that made my eyes water - serious ouch!

I once accidentally rubbed my eyes after chopping chillies and that stung like a bitch for a couple of hours but this must have been alot worse!