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December 02, 2004

Card throwing

How does a playing card become deadly?

Enter the Shaolin, Ninja, and the almost forgotten Korean masters. These people understood the physical laws and how to bend them as far as they were needed to go. Throwing stars are actually dull pieces of iron, not razor blades like Hollywood. The technique used was more than enough to turn these into the equivalent of a bullet back then. Modified and adapted, throwing cards were no exception.

Today, hit-men of the Far East and those who've studied such disciplines, are best feared for their "poker-face". Adapting a facade as another poker addicted person, or casino dealer these people can stun, bleed, and even put people into coma with deadly accuracy at up to about 20-30 feet. Not that great a distance, however more than enough when you're at a poker table. This is done with pressure points. But to hit those tiny zones, you need great accuracy with more power than you need with throwing dagger

Posted by Ghost of a flea at December 2, 2004 06:11 AM

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Comments

Mythbusters (Discovery Channel) built a machine to chuck a playing card at high velocity, and were able to embed the cards about half-way into a styrofoam block. But even at that power, they only left a slight red mark on the skin or just barely broke the surface of the skin (my memory is a bit unclear). Their conclusion was that more mass would be needed before your life was in danger.

Of course, they didn't go for "pressure points". Maybe you'd like to suggest this on their discussion board?

Posted by: Paul at December 2, 2004 11:15 AM

Yeah, I watched that same episode, ane even if there were more mass to the playing card, I doubt that any person would be able to throw a card at 150 mph...enough to break the skin.

Posted by: Michael at December 27, 2004 10:59 PM

I'll bet a tornado could do it.

Posted by: Dave Munger at December 29, 2004 10:04 PM

My first driver's ed teacher told us all about someone who was killed by a flying box of tissue paper when she rear-ended someone -- that it came up and got her in the temple.

But I never believed him.

Posted by: Ben at December 29, 2004 11:33 PM