Hello,
nodeshell.
You know, I had always thought the venerable ping pong ball trick was just a myth. I've been on the internet for years, and I've seen more than my share of the sick, sad and bizarre, but I'd never seen this. Granted, I wasn't exactly looking for it, but this medium tends to deliver with punishing intensity a cornucopia of tasteless practices, whether or not you're in the market for it.
I thought I was safe. I had long ago gotten wise to my sick-o friends. I learned not to view any attachments they might send me. I learned to ignore any URL they pasted on IRC. I was doing OK.
And then it happened. Late one night, I was up watching BBC America. The show was So Graham Norton, which I assumed would be analogous to any American late night chat show. You know, witty rapport in a funny accent, perhaps some jokes read from little blue cards. Nothing too risque- after all, this is a basic cable channel. But then, right at the end of the program, they brought out a German woman (natch), all dolled up like a Las Vegas stripper. They set up a target. They said something about fireworks.
Of course, the angle of the camera did not show all the gory details of the spectacle, but I noticed two things: