You'll go blind...

[47of74]

...if you play the bagpipes. That's the latest news out of Scotland this morning;

Playing the bagpipes could put you at higher risk of blindness, Scottish scientists say.

Musicians who have to blow hard to play their instruments – such as brass, woodwind or pipes – have a higher risk of developing glaucoma.

This is a condition where the optic nerve is damaged, potentially leading to loss of sight.

A study at Glasgow Caledonian University found that blowing into such instruments can put the eyeballs under significant stress.

[kalli007]

1. Finally!!!!!!!!

A real excuse not to blow the instrument!!!!!! Sorry sweetums!

[47of74]

2. Uh, yes.

[Richard Steele]

3. Yeah, as if -THATS- what's gonna make me go blind.

As far as things that I've been told could make me go blind,
that's WAAAY down the list.

[rurallib]

10. didn't quit any of the others, so I will not quit the pipes

first I gotta get me a set.

[Odin2005]

4. Send this to the Mythbusters, maybe one of the myths they busted is true in a way.

[rug]

5. I'm pretty good at squeezing it but not with my elbows.

[47of74]

7. Squeezing what?

I hope we're still talking about bagpipes here.

[rug]

8. Well we're not talking about organs.

[MiddleFingerMom]

6. You'll go crazy...

.
.
.
The glass armonica (invented by Benjamin Franklin) is 37 glass bowls
mounted sideways on a revolving axis. Applying moistened fingers to
the bowls creates sounds similar to those heard when one does this
to a crystal wine glass.
,
It was rumored to drive the musician mad:
.
From Wikipedia:
.
"The harmonica excessively stimulates the nerves, plunges the player
into a nagging depression and hence into a dark and melancholy mood
that is apt method for slow self-annihilation. If you are suffering from
any nervous disorder, you should not play it; if you are not yet ill you
should not play it; if you are feeling melancholy you should not play it."
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_harmonica
.
Other theories say it might have been the lead used in crystal of the
time, though medical knowledge debunks the idea of lead poisoning of
that sort through finger contact.
.
.
.
I got a chance to hear this once (although it was not an armonium,
but a great number of partially-filled goblets on a card table in a
square in Philadelphia known for street performers. A surgeon, whose
hobby was this music. Beautiful. Ethereal. Truly indescribable -- you
had to be there type material.
.
.
.

[applegrove]

9. I have the beginning of glaucoma. Don't know if it will progress at all yet.

I've never played the pipes. The only thing I can think of that is like that would be clearing your mask when you are scuba diving and I haven't done a lot of that.