Reply Hazy, Try Again

Recently eaten: chicken and jasmine rice
Recent annoyance: inexplicable stains

I'll warn you that watching someone disassemble this Magic 8-Ball is going to be like watching the Death Star explode in slow motion (if you were a big geek). There is, in fact, nothing magic about the innards of the 8-ball. But I'm not so sure about that inky blue magic juice in the middle. It made me feel all warm and squiggly inside.

The Inscrutable 8-Ball Revealed
"A Note About the Blue Fluid

Although this report has previously referred to the blue fluid as "presumably harmless", there is some reason to believe that it is less than potable.

Two human subjects (including one of the authors) volunteered for a non-blind Type I safety trial of the blue fluid. The investigators initially believed the fluid to be water with dissolved dye. The trial subjects self-administered small doses of the fluid to their tongues. Trial subjects reported the following side-effects:

* Hideous taste (100%)
* Numbness of the application area (100%)
* Blue fingertips (100%)
* Headache (50%)

A follow-up study of the experimental subjects after 30 minutes revealed no additional long-term side-effects of blue fluid ingestion. The change in finger color appeared to be a permanent outcome, but involved no other morbidity. The numbness discontinued after a few minutes. However, the authors recommend that no further human trials begin without animal studies."