Go to the CCI website to see the whole animated gif.

About an hour ago I was stung by a scorpion.  It had decided to take up residence in my boot, and got me on the bottom of the foot as I was getting dressed.

I have been stung by these little suckers a few times before, so I already know what will happen. After the initial pain from the sting wears off, my foot will swell so that it becomes uncomfortable to wear a shoe.  I will feel nauseated for a while (this has already started).  I will not (at least, never have before) have a dangerous life-threatening reaction to the venom.  In 24-36 hours I will be back to normal.  Right now I can hardly walk because it hurts to put any weight on my foot.

Fortunately, Texas isn't home to any of the really dangerous species of scorpion.

I've also been stung by:

Paper Wasp (Polistes exclamans)--painful but not otherwise much of a bother (often erroneously called a yellowjacket in this area).
Honey Bee--So many times I don't even notice it much anymore.
Some kind of digger wasp that lives around here--I've stepped on grassburrs that were more painful.
Red Wasp (Polistes carolina, another kind of paper wasp)--This one I dread.  The sting of a red wasp makes me sick and swollen for 3-4 days.  I hate those things.

So far I've never been bitten by any kind of spider, although I've had close brushes with quite a few black widows through the years.  I've never even seen a brown recluse.

On my own personal scale of things I would rather not get stung by, I'd put the scorpion somewhere between the paper wasp and the red wasp.

From the Sunday Times in South Africa comes this:

South African gun owners have disappointingly lost over 50,000 firearms over the past three years, said Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula.

Speaking in the National Assembly during debate on his budget vote, Nqakula said gun ownership in South Africa continued to be an emotive issue.

Guns also continued to be the main weapons of choice in the commission of serious and violent crimes, but this was not exclusive to South Africa.

"We are among the governments of the world that are looking at proper firearms control and, given that this matter is again before Parliament, I will not engage further with it at this time."

Nqakula repeated that the Firearms Control Act and subsequent amendments were intended to assist the police in preventing the proliferation of illegal firearms and removing them from society, as well as to control legally owned firearms.

Between April 1, 2003 and March 31 this year, police collected 187,772 firearms.

"It is extremely disappointing to note that South African gun owners over the last three years lost 50,864 firearms.

"It is obvious that the great majority of those weapons have become part of the illegal guns that are in circulation at this time."

Is Nqakula just being polite (ha), or is he just this dense?

My guess is, a great many of those guns aren't really lost, they're just "lost," where they can fairly easily be "found" again.