People who drink human blood • Hacker News Board

Re: People who drink human blood

#31

Post by NikolaeVarius » Thu, Oct 22, 2015, 3:24 PM UTC

philh wrote: post #29

chengiz wrote: post #18

Why is the title editorialized? There is no serious medical condition here, well unless you count delusion.

These sound like potentially pretty serious problems: > felt weak all the time, lacking all the energy to run and play sports like his friends > Besides relentless fatigue, other common symptoms appear to include severe headaches and stomach cramps. > plagued with an irritable bowel > “I would go more than a week without a bowel movement while ‘hungry’, and feel nausea if I ate anything other than my ‘cure food’,” I…

People who suffer from 'electromagnetic sensitivity' also feel symptoms when they're around known wifi hotspots.

Doesn't make it any more true.

Re: People who drink human blood

#32

Post by maffydub » Thu, Oct 22, 2015, 3:41 PM UTC

Obligatory xkcd: https://what-if.xkcd.com/98/

The squirrel pictures bring a smile to my face every time I see this.

Re: People who drink human blood

#33

Post by swsieber » Thu, Oct 22, 2015, 4:06 PM UTC

NikolaeVarius wrote: post #31

philh wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These sound like potentially pretty serious problems: > felt weak all the time, lacking all the energy to run and play sports like his friends > Besides relentless fatigue, other common symptoms appear to include severe headaches and stomach cramps. > plagued with an irritable bowel > “I would go more than a week without a bowel movement while ‘hungry’, and feel nausea if I ate anything other than my ‘cure food’,” I…

People who suffer from 'electromagnetic sensitivity' also feel symptoms when they're around known wifi hotspots. Doesn't make it any more true.

Just because some symptoms could be psychosomatic doesn't make them any less debilitating. Writing off peoples symptoms because you think they're psychosomatic seems a little cruel.

Re: People who drink human blood

#34

Post by philh » Thu, Oct 22, 2015, 4:07 PM UTC

NikolaeVarius wrote: post #31

philh wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These sound like potentially pretty serious problems: > felt weak all the time, lacking all the energy to run and play sports like his friends > Besides relentless fatigue, other common symptoms appear to include severe headaches and stomach cramps. > plagued with an irritable bowel > “I would go more than a week without a bowel movement while ‘hungry’, and feel nausea if I ate anything other than my ‘cure food’,” I…

People who suffer from 'electromagnetic sensitivity' also feel symptoms when they're around known wifi hotspots. Doesn't make it any more true.

With EMS, the symptoms are real whether or not those people can actually detect wifi hotspots. Similarly, it seems like the vampires genuinely have symptoms which are cleared up by drinking blood.

Now, if someone believes "wifi hotspots give me headaches", that's untrue. They only get headaches when they believe there's a hotspot nearby. This has been demonstrated in general, and it should be easy to demonstrate to any individual sufferer. After that demonstration, if someone continues to believe that wifi hotspots give them headaches, then it may be reasonable to call them delusional. But that doesn't make their symptoms go away.

What specific belief do you think vampires have, that you think has been demonstrated untrue?

Re: People who drink human blood

#35

Post by anonbanker » Thu, Oct 22, 2015, 4:22 PM UTC

m-i-l wrote: post #9

tormeh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should try pig's blood. Isn't that easily available from a butcher or similar? That said, it would be funny if they were just low on iron or something. They should have their blood tested for deficiencies.

Its called black pudding[0] in the UK, or blood sausage[1] in some other places. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_sausage

My ex-wife made me eat blood sausage once, without telling me anything about it. It's one of the reason she's my ex-wife now.

I'll assume it's like coffee, and an acquired taste. how much of this would I have to eat before it didn't make me want to throw up anymore?

Re: People who drink human blood

#36

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 22, 2015, 5:32 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #30

philh wrote: post #11

Have the med sangs run blinded tests? I can think of two that seem worth running. One with capsules containing either blood or not-blood, and one with blood that belongs to either themselves or someone else. If you have some kind of nutritional deficiency, then drinking your own blood shouldn't cure it.

Yes, this would provide a huge signal, very quickly, and is easy enough to do that even the journalist in question could easily have run it. If any of the interested community ends up reading this HN discussion, this is by far the obvious next step. It can even be done on yourself, with just a bit of help from a friend to do the packing, randomization, and storage of "the answer key". And if you haven't done it yet,…

[deleted]

Re: People who drink human blood

#37

Post by jazzyk » Thu, Oct 22, 2015, 5:35 PM UTC

It must be getting close to Halloween! Oh, wait...

Re: People who drink human blood

#38

Post by retrogradeorbit » Fri, Oct 23, 2015, 12:26 AM UTC

ccallebs wrote: post #26

galilyou498 wrote: post #21

Bollocks.

Don't be so quick to dismiss. It sounds odd and offensive to western sensibilities but there are reasons why it could be genuine. As mentioned earlier in the thread, there are so many micronutrients in the blood stream that some deficiencies might not show up on a panel.

What amuses me about Hacker News: someone being sceptical about 'vampires' is met with responses like you see in this thread. Don't be so dismissive! Don't call them crazy! They may have a condition that doesn't show up on tests!

But just question the long term safety of nuclear reactors built on fault lines, or suggest anyone may have got cancer from radiation exposure, ever, and its just a wall of incredulity. Rubbish! Where's your proof! All the pro-nuclear science is beyond reproach!

Call me old fashioned, but these people are probably crazy, and radiation is probably dangerous. There's no bias quite like Hacker News bias...

Re: People who drink human blood

#39

Post by ccallebs » Mon, Oct 26, 2015, 8:39 PM UTC

retrogradeorbit wrote: post #38

ccallebs wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be so quick to dismiss. It sounds odd and offensive to western sensibilities but there are reasons why it could be genuine. As mentioned earlier in the thread, there are so many micronutrients in the blood stream that some deficiencies might not show up on a panel.

What amuses me about Hacker News: someone being sceptical about 'vampires' is met with responses like you see in this thread. Don't be so dismissive! Don't call them crazy! They may have a condition that doesn't show up on tests! But just question the long term safety of nuclear reactors built on fault lines, or suggest anyone may have got cancer from radiation exposure, ever, and its just a wall of incredulity. Rubb…

I'm just now seeing this. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you weren't trying to put words in my mouth with the nuclear reactor comment. I've made no such assertions in the past and don't really have an opinion on the matter.

However, I think it's pretty easy to see how someone's prejudices/preconceptions could skew someone's opinion of the article. If the article was about cockroaches rather than human blood, I would have the same opinion.