Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Patent Law Blogs -> IPBiz

Patent Law

: IPBiz

"Best job in the world" not so good

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

FoxNews reported that the British winner (Ben Southall) of the so-called "Best Job in the World" has been stung by an irukandji jellyfish, which possesses one of the most toxic venoms on the planet. Southall won a six-month contract to serve as caretaker of Hamilton Island, Queensland, Australia, and maintains a blog ["I was feeling pretty hot and sweaty, had a headache and felt pretty sick too, together with pain in my lower back and a tightness in the chest and a really high blood pressure ? all classic symptoms of Irukandji syndrome! This was not what I?d wanted at all and had caught me little off guard to say the least ? I?m supposed to be relaxing in my last few days on Hamilton Island."]

IPBiz had recently written about tetrodotoxin, produced by bacteria on pufferfish. In a recent hierarchy of the deadliest poisons, tetrodotoxin/pufferfish ranked number 10, to the number one of the irukandji jelly fish.

If the irukandji jelly fish sounds familiar, it should, because it was a plot element on the episode of CSI New York titled Buzzkill. Of relevance to inventors, in that episode, the victim of an idea theft planted the Irukandji Jellyfish in a beach ball intended for use by the idea stealer. Killed the wrong person though. In a different episode of CSI New York ("Death House"), a ripped off inventor did kill the idea stealer. Is CSI New York promoting a Hobbsian alternative to patent infringement lawsuits?

In passing, if being a target for an irukandji is not on your list of job objecives, see 10 Jobs That Will Get a Raise in 2010.

Full post as published by IPBiz on December 29, 2009 (boomark / email).