http://xkcd.com/214/

Methyl tertiary-butile ether > NFPA 704 > Phosphine > Fumigation
   > Methyl isocyanate
   > Hydrogen cyanide
   > Iodoform
   > Chloripicrin
     > Activated charcole > Strychnine > Anticonvulsant

Something is wrong with my brain. I always seem to end up looking at 
deadly poisons, powerful explosives, dangerous natural phenomina, 
powerful computer viruses, rare ways to die...

Phosphine is nice. It gets a 4-4-2 on the NFPA 704 chart. It's a gas 
that's wickedly poisonous, corrosive, highly flammable (*and* burns to 
produce *another* poison), and just all-round nasty.

And then there's methyl isocyanate. It burns your eyes, skin and lungs 
on contact. It's liquid at room temperature, but it rapidly gets hot if 
you get it wet. It's also stupidly flammable. In a confined damp space 
it'll probably explode. On top of that, it can react *with itself* if 
catalysed by any of several commonly-ocurring metal impurities. Pretty 
frickin' evil, right?

And that everybody's favourit, strychnine. It screws up nerve 
conduction, causing dramatic muscle spasms, leading to a spectacular and 
vivid death by suffocation. Weirdly, this one used to be used as a 
medicine not so long ago... When I clicked the link, I instantly 
recognised the molecule. It appears on the cover artwork of the 
Prodigy's "Poison" single. (Unsurprisingly enough...)

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