...or would you rather be a worm?

Leave it to the Norwegians to spend money answering the burning questions that keep us all awake nights. And I thought we were the only ones who squandered taxpayer's money like that.

Study says worms on fishhook feel no pain

``The common earthworm has a very simple nervous system -- it can be cut in two and continue with its business,'' Professor Wenche Farstad, who chaired the panel that drew up the report, said Monday.

Norway might have considered banning the use of live worms as fish bait if the study had found they felt pain, but Farstad said ``It seems to be only reflex curling when put on the hook ... They might sense something, but it is not painful and does not compromise their well-being.''

Well, the hook may not compromise their well-being, but what about being eaten by a fish? Or the fish being eaten by a Norwegian? I guess that'll be covered in a different study.

Farstad said most invertebrates, including lobsters and crabs boiled alive, do not feel pain because, unlike mammals, they do not have a big brain to read the signals.

Ohhhh! That explains why our current regime's policies aren't as painful to some people!