I started using 43Things finally, and one of my goals is to drink 100 cups of coffee. This is in homage to the Futurama episode where Fry drinks 100 cups of coffee and reaches some kind of enlightenment. Sure, it’s a cartoon and all, but it still looked like fun. And I think it’s important to have goals, no matter how inane they might be. Most people say something like “you know it is possible to overdose on caffeine?” or “that would probably kill you”. Generally discouraging remarks. But thanks to Wikipedia I think I might be looking at a plausible goal. Check out the caffeine entry:

The LD50 of caffeine is estimated between 13 and 19 grams for oral administration for an average adult. The LD50 of caffeine is dependent on weight and individual sensitivity and estimated to be about 150 to 200 mg per kg of body mass, roughly 140 to 180 cups of coffee for an average adult taken within a limited timeframe that is dependent on half-life. The half-life, or time it takes for the amount of caffeine in the blood to decrease by 50%, ranges from 3.5 to 10 hours. In adults the half-life is generally around 5 hours. However, contraceptive pills increase this to around 12 hours, and, for women over 3 months pregnant, it varies from 10 to 18 hours. In infants and young children, the half-life may be longer than in adults. With common coffee and a very rare half-life of 100 hours, it would require 3 cups of coffee every hour for 100 hours just to reach LD50.

3 cups of coffee every hour for 100 hours, see that? And my goal is just 2 cups of coffee for 48 hours. That should be well below the lethal dosage. I just got a large capacity coffee maker for home, I’m thinking this would be a great way to test it out. 2006 has been a great year so far and we’re not even a week in. How much would it rock to knock down a long standing goal before the end of January? A lot, that’s how much.