strange news: Entire village hit by mystery illness that causes residents to sleep for days

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
I'll throw the BS flag on this one. The patient should recover as soon as they are moved to fresh air. Radon is inert and only acts to displace oxygen, not like carbon-monoxide that latches on to hemoglobin but like biologically inert nitrogen which is already 78% of the atmosphere. Even at high concentrations of radon, the effects should be no different than altitude sickness (low oxygen availability) and symptoms should have been easily identified with a Blood O2 measurement.

There is either a mass-hysteria issue going on where people want the attention (or vacation) that the first patient received, or there are other chemical contaminants or illness that the authorities do not want disclosed. There are more likely causes of possible illness in a former uranium mining town than Radon.
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
That, "newspaper" is so bad that I feel shame to admit I looked at it.
That, "newspaper" also has a story about a

Person electrocuted by dropping a cell phone in the bath tub.
Drug addict mother burns her 3 children alive
Drug addict mother on trial for killing her 6 children
Pit Bull (almost) eats baby

There is one that bad in the U.S. but I am proud to say I can't remember its name.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
No boss, I wasn't sleeping off a weekend bender. I was suffering from the same thing Olga had.... and I will likely need to sleep for several more days. And I will likely have this issue after several other family celebrations later this year.
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,218
That, "newspaper" is so bad that I feel shame to admit I looked at it.
That, "newspaper" also has a story about a

Person electrocuted by dropping a cell phone in the bath tub.
Drug addict mother burns her 3 children alive
Drug addict mother on trial for killing her 6 children
Pit Bull (almost) eats baby

There is one that bad in the U.S. but I am proud to say I can't remember its name.
One's called the National Enquirer and the other is Daily Star...
 

joeyd999

Joined Jun 6, 2011
5,234
I've seen this episode. Goa'uld clones infected them as part of a plan to build a spaceship and escape earth. The symbiotes are immature so they can only take over the host when he/she falls asleep, so they work at night. Daytime, they have no memory of the nights events, but they walk around like zombies all day from lack of sleep.

The NID, of course, is well aware of the goings on, and have everything under control, as usual.

Luckily, Sam discovers the "antidote" and injects herself just before she is captured and made a host. Her symbiote dies, allowing her to use subterfuge against the other hosts and, as usual, save the day.

Good episode.
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
One's called the National Enquirer and the other is Daily Star...
Is there an, "unlike" button?
Remembering the National Enquirer is about as welcome as remembering an ex-wife. :(

"Enquiring minds want to know."
Mostly they want to know how to get on the Jerry Springer Show.
Easy. Just have sex with a close relative, tell your wife, and have somebody that can write send a letter to Jerry.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,976
The article claims that it is not possible to detect radon in air.

Pure bull. The very first thing I designed and built after graduating with by bachelors was an all-electronic radon level monitor built using dollar-scale components. That was nearly 25 years ago.

And their description of the method by which this abandoned mine has caused this problem is pretty laughable.
 

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
I agree. There is just so much in the article that doesn't make sense. First and foremost is the whole encephalopathy thing. Even if one considers the possibility of stable complexes with water (e.g., clathrates, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_compound), the concentration of radon necessary for that would have been unreasonable. I did a search on radon encephalopathy and found nothing.

John
 
Top