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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
 Posted - 09/18/2007 : 07:19:42
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070918/sc_afp/peruhealthoffbeat
Sickness follows meteor strike.
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"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2007 : 07:32:57 [Permalink]
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| Could be a coincidence. Hmmmm.... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2007 : 07:38:48 [Permalink]
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This sounds a lot like some light cases of hydrogen sulfide poisoning. The stench and the mention of boiling water coming out of the crater hints at volcanic activity, which would support the conjecture.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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perrodetokio
Skeptic Friend
275 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2007 : 07:45:55 [Permalink]
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| Reminds me of one of H.P. Lovecraft´s stories. |
"Yes I have a belief in a creator/God but do not know that he exists." Bill Scott
"They are still mosquitoes! They did not turn into whales or lizards or anything else. They are still mosquitoes!..." Bill Scott
"We should have millions of missing links or transition fossils showing a fish turning into a philosopher..." Bill Scott |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2007 : 08:04:40 [Permalink]
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Very odd, if it's not simply totally made-up, fake news. Very big "IF" there, IMO. Probably a fraudulent news story. One suspicious hint of fraud is the fact that the village near the meteor strike was not named in the article. Peru's Department of Puna seems to be a big Andean area, west of Lake Titicaca. (A coworker of mine from Peru once told me that Peru got the Titi, while Bolivia got the Caca.)
That would have been a damned rare meteorite strike, to create a 30-meter-wide crater! If there is any basic truth to the report, I think it sounds like either mass suggestion/hysteria or chemical poisoning of some kind, more likely the former than the latter. But if the latter, the strike could have released gasses or toxic dust from the ground itself. I've not heard of a meteor, comet, or asteroid found to contain appreciable amounts of toxic materials.
I just now Googled up this article, which goes into slightly more detail, but also makes me raise my eyebrows at claims of almost-instant "radiation sickness." But this one includes a photo of the supposed crater.
 Meteorite Lands in Puno, Peru Near Bolivia, Citizens Report Radiation Sickness
(LIP-ir) -- Peru's Andina News Agency reported today that Puno's Regional Health Directorate sent a group of specialists to the Carancas community in the province of Chucuito near Bolivia to take samples of a meteorite that supposedly landed in the area.
. . .
In addition, Tejada stated that a health brigade, consisting of doctors and nurses would be sent to the landing site to aid people that had reported health problems after having gotten close to the supposed meteorite. |
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 09/18/2007 08:05:54 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2007 : 08:26:32 [Permalink]
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Here's another article:Peru's Geologists and Physicists Sent to Study Crater left by Meteorite
(LIP-ir) -- According to Peru's Government News Agency, Geologists and Physicists from the University of San Agustin (UNSA) will travel to the Carancas community located in the Province of Chucuito in the Region of Puno, Peru to study the landing site of what is thought to be a meteorite. |
Sounds like the beginning of War of the Worlds.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2007 : 05:16:13 [Permalink]
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It's looking like a real meteorite did hit Peru, but that the rest of the original story was mostly fiction and hysteria: Volcanologist for Peru's Geological, Mining and Metallurgical Institute (INGEMMET), Luisa Macedo, confirmed that a chondrite meteorite had caused the 17 meter (55 foot) wide and 5 meter (16 foot) deep crater when it landed on earth.
Macedo explained that the chondrite was not radioactive and did not have any toxic gases or substances which could be harmful to peoples health. On the other hand, Macedo stated that it had not yet been established if the water supply in the province of Chucuito had been contaminated or not. |
To be fair, this thing streaking down and smashing into the earth must have scared the hell out of the locals, and who can blame them? The sickness, or at least the "radioactivity," though, was probably due to the power of suggestion.
It also seems to me that Jorge López Tejada, the Regional Health Director for Puno, was and is at least partly to blame for overblowing the original reports, thus adding to hysteria, but (see my hypothesis speculation below) maybe not for inflating his concern for longer-term problems:| "There aren't any serious cases, but the substance from the object could affect (the people) in the long term, that's why apart from these tests, it will be necessary to follow up the cases in the next few months," said López Tejada. |
It seems to me that the meteorite struck a muddy plain. Could it be that dissolved hydrogen sulfide gas from decaying organic matter in the muddy earth was released upon impact? This would be a non-volcanic version of Filthy's idea.
A view of the crater.
Another view of the crater.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 09/19/2007 07:26:14 |
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2007 : 09:32:31 [Permalink]
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| I hope it is a space disease. Life has just gotten too borning by comparison to good fiction. We need a catastrophe to reinvigorate human civilization. |
-Chaloobi
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2007 : 13:53:07 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by chaloobi
I hope it is a space disease. Life has just gotten too borning by comparison to good fiction. We need a catastrophe to reinvigorate human civilization.
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I agree. An alien crashlanding with real live aliens would also put an end to all speculation from most major religions that life is unique to Earth. I wonder how many non-evangelical Christian would abandon their faith in the light of evidence that the Bible is wrong.
The true nutty ones (envagelicans and other extremists) would just make up some weird excuse for themselves in order to continue to keep their insane beliefs. |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2007 : 14:03:39 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dr. Mabuse
The true nutty ones (envagelicans and other extremists) would just make up some weird excuse for themselves in order to continue to keep their insane beliefs. |
Already been done. God gave Jesus to Earth, so therefore all extraterrestrials who haven't been to Earth and heard the "Good News" can't possibly be saved, and are doomed to Hell. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2007 : 14:50:20 [Permalink]
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| The answer to the Fermi Paradox: There are no aliens because when God created the universe, He only made life on Earth, which is the Center of The Universe in His mind, intent, and love, if not in actual physical location. |
-Chaloobi
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| Edited by - chaloobi on 09/19/2007 14:51:06 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/20/2007 : 05:46:13 [Permalink]
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Russia's official news, Pravda, has a very, very interesting take on this story. Interesting, convoluted, and downright paranoid. They say what fell on Peru was a US spy satellite's nuclear fission power plant, after the satellite was shot down over Iran. Shot down by the US. A nuclear attack on Iran was thwarted.
I shit you not:American spy satellite downes in Peru as US nuclear attack on Iran thwarted
Russian Military Intelligence Analysts are reporting today that one of the United States most secretive spy satellites, the KH-13, targeting Iran was 'destroyed in its orbit' with its main power generator powered by the radioactive isotope Pu-238 surviving re-entry and crashing in a remote region of the South American Nation of Peru, and where hundreds are reported to be ill from radiation poisoning.
Western media reports are stating that the US spy satellite debris hitting Peru was caused by a meteor, but which, according to these reports, would be 'impossible' as the size of 30-meter crater, if caused by a meteorite, would have hit the ground with about as much energy as 1 kiloton tactical nuclear weapon, and which would have been recorded by the seismic stations around the World.
Most astonishing about these reports, however, are that they state that it was the Americans themselves who destroyed their own spy satellite with the attack upon it being made by the United States Air Forces' 30th Space Wing located at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This incident further fuels the intrigue involving the United States War Leaders plans to attack Iran in their attempt to engulf the entire Middle East in Total War, but, against which, according to Russian Military Intelligence Analysts, a 'high ranking and significant' faction of the American Military Establishment is opposed to. |
How dare Pravda tread into Moonscape News territory!
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 09/20/2007 06:20:07 |
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maledoro
Skeptic Friend
66 Posts |
Posted - 09/20/2007 : 09:40:59 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
Could be a coincidence. Hmmmm....
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Another coincidence is that for the past couple of weeks, the comic strip Alley Oop dealt with a noxious meteor that was making everybody in Moo ill.
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"Nothing frightens me more than religion at my door."
-John Cale |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 09/20/2007 : 10:46:35 [Permalink]
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Here's the latest I've been able to find on it: Scores of residents of the farming village of Carancas began vomiting and complaining of headaches and dizziness after the space object struck the area Saturday, creating an eight meter (26-foot) deep, 20 meter (65 foot) wide crater.
"We have determined with precision instruments that there is no radiation," engineer Renan Ramirez of the Peruvian Nuclear Energy Institute told AFP.
Ramirez said the illnesses may have been triggered by sulfur, arsenic or other toxins that may have melted in the extreme heat produced by the meteorite strike.
"It is a conventional meteorite that, when it struck, produced gases by fusing with elements of the terrain," he said. He also ruled out that the object was a satellite.
Nestor Quispe, mayor of the nearby town of Desaguadero, said about 200 sick villagers are being treated and that Carancas residents fear that they fear long-term side effects. |
Nothing is said about the qualifacations and expertise of the research team beyond the 'engineer' part, but their rather tentative conclusions thus far sound at least ok. Apparently, they were more concerned with radation than anything else. Perhaps more & better will be along soon.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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JEROME DA GNOME
BANNED
2418 Posts |
 Posted - 09/20/2007 : 20:43:11 [Permalink]
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Pravda has solved the mystery.
American spy satellite!
| Russian Military Intelligence Analysts are reporting today that one of the United States most secretive spy satellites, the KH-13, targeting Iran was 'destroyed in its orbit' with its main power generator powered by the radioactive isotope Pu-238 surviving re-entry and crashing in a remote region of the South American Nation of Peru, and where hundreds are reported to be ill from radiation poisoning. |
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What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. - Bertrand Russell |
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Boron10
Religion Moderator
USA
1266 Posts |
Posted - 09/20/2007 : 21:40:43 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by JEROME DA GNOME
Pravda has solved the mystery. |
This was already brought up 3 posts ago. |
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Andromeda Strain?
