Schmidt Sting Pain Index, created by Justin O. Schmidt, an entomologist.

Having been stung by almost everything, Schmidt created (on his own time) an index to compare the overall pain of insect stings on a four-point scale.

1.0 Sweat bee: Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.

1.2 Fire ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet & reaching for the light switch.

1.8 Bullhorn acacia ant: A rare, piercing, elevated sort of pain. Someone has fired a staple into your cheek.

2.0 Bald-faced hornet: Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door.

2.0 Yellowjacket: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine WC Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.

3.0 Red harvester ant: Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail.

3.0 Paper wasp: Caustic & burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of hydrochloric acid on a paper cut.

4.0 Pepsis wasp: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair drier has been dropped into your bubble bath (if you get stung by one you might as well lie down and scream).

4.0+ Bullet ant: Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail in your heel.

Air Force Plan: Hack Your Nervous System

Plasma and electromagnetic weapons by David Hambling, author of Weapons Grade: How Modern Warfare Gave Birth to Our High-Tech World.

The brain has always been a battlefield. New weapons might be able to hack directly into your nervous system.

"Controlled Effects" is one of the Air Force's ambitious long-term challenges. It starts with better and more accurate bombs, but moves on to discuss devices that "make selected adversaries think or act according to our needs... By studying and modeling the human brain and nervous system, the ability to mentally influence or confuse personnel is also possible."

The first stage is technology to "remotely create physical sensations." They give the example of the Active Denial System "people zapper" which uses a high-frequency radiation similar to microwaves as a non-lethal means of crowd control.

Other weapons can affect the nervous system directly. The Pulsed Energy Projectile fires a short intense pulse of laser energy. This vaporizes the outer layer of the target, creating a rapidly-expanding expanding ball of plasma. At different power levels, those expanding plasmas could deliver a harmless warning, stun the target, or disable them -- all with pinpoint laser precision from a mile away.

Early reports on the effects of PEPs mentioned temporary paralysis, then thought to be related to ultrasonic shockwaves. It later became apparent that the electromagnetic pulse caused by the expanding plasma was triggering nerve cells.

Details of this emerged in a heavily-censored document released to Ed Hammond of the Sunshine Project under the Freedom of Information Act. Called "Sensory consequence of electromagnetic pulsed emitted by laser induced plasmas," it described research on activating the nerve cells responsible for sensing unpleasant stimuli: heat, damage, pressure, cold. By selectively stimulating a particular nociceptor, a finely tuned PEP might trigger sensations of, say, being burned, frozen, or dipped in acid -- all without doing the slightest actual harm.

The skin is the easiest target for such stimulation. But, in principle, any sensory nerves could be triggered. The Controlled Effects document suggests "it may be possible to create synthetic images to confuse an individual's visual sense or, in a similar manner, confuse his senses of sound, taste, touch, or smell."

In other words, it may be possible to use electromagnetic means to create overwhelming "sound" or "light" or indeed "intolerable smell" which would exist only in the brain of the person perceiving them.

Rancho Los Amigos Scale/The Levels of Coma

I. No Response

Patient appears to be in a deep sleep and is unresponsive to stimuli.

II. Generalized Response

Patient reacts inconsistently and nonpurposefully to stimuli in a nonspecific manner. Reflexes are limited and often the same, regardless of stimuli presented.

III. Localized Response

Patient responses are specific but inconsistent, and are directly related to the type of stimulus presented, such as turning head toward a sound or focusing on a presented object. He may follow simple commands in an inconsistent and delayed manner.

IV. Confused-Agitated

Patient is in a heightened state of activity and severely confused, disoriented, and unaware of present events. His behavior is frequently bizarre and inappropriate to his immediate environment. He is unable to perform self-care. If not physically disabled, he may perform automatic motor activities such as sitting, reaching and walking as part of his agitated state, but not necessarily as a purposeful act.

V. Confused-Inappropriate, Non-Agitated

Patient appears alert and responds to simple commands. More complex commands, however, produce responses that are nonpurposeful and random. The patient may show some agitated behavior; it is in response to external stimuli rather than internal confusion. The patient is highly distractible and generally has difficulty in learning new information. He can manage self-care activities with assistance. His memory is impaired and verbalization is often inappropriate.

VI. Confused-Appropriate

Patient shows goal-directed behavior, but relies on cueing for direction. He can relearn old skills such as activities of daily living, but memory problems interfere with new learning. He has a beginning awareness of self and others.

VII. Automatic-Appropriate

Patient goes through daily routine automatically, but is robot-like. However, he exhibits appropriate behavior and minimal confusion. He has shallow recall of activities, and superficial awareness of, but lack of insight into, his condition. He requires at least minimal supervision because judgment, problem solving, and planning skills are impaired.

VIII. Purposeful-Appropriate

Patient is alert and oriented, and is able to recall and integrate past and recent events. He can learn new activities and continue in home and living skills, though deficits in stress tolerance, judgment, abstract reasoning, social, emotional, and intellectual capacities may persist.