The Mystery of the Havana Syndrome • Hacker News Board

Re: The Mystery of the Havana Syndrome

#31

Post by richardbdrowley » Sun, Nov 11, 2018, 11:17 PM UTC

throwawaymath wrote: post #13

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #6

> The name is a pseudonym, which she requested in order to protect her privacy.) Her life in Havana was fascinating but orderly. She lived with her husband and their twelve-year-old twins This is the problem with "anonymizing" a person by just changing their name, or exchanging a name in a database with a number. There's a pretty high probability that the number of FSI agents in Havana with 12-year-old twins is preci…

Yeah, that's interesting. We start with approximately 33 bits needed to uniquely identify her. She lives in Havana, which immediately slices 11 bits from our search space (the population of Havana is around 2.13 million, or ~2^21). She's female, so we can roughly cut our population in half again; now we're only at 20 bits. She worked in the Havana embassy in 2017 and was one of the people impacted by the strange heal…

She doesn't live in Havana anymore.

Re: The Mystery of the Havana Syndrome

#32

Post by richardbdrowley » Sun, Nov 11, 2018, 11:19 PM UTC

owenmarshall wrote: post #19

wizzard wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read the article? If you did then you’re being purposely misleading about what you read. The article was about the many non-CIA officers affected. There is plenty of evidence of brain injury, just no evidence of how it happened or what agent(s) caused it. And how about the coincidence that the hard line position of the new US government lines up perfectly with the desires of hard line Cubans, Russia, and Chin…

> There is plenty of evidence of brain injury >> In fact, aside from the victims’ accounts, there was no conclusive evidence that anyone in Cuba was attacked at all. >> an investigation carried out by Canada and Cuba has thus far found no evidence of attacks. >> After the study was published, JAMA received letters from other specialists, arguing that the study was flawed, especially in neglecting psychological explan…

And what about the people who suffered this without any prior warning?

Re: The Mystery of the Havana Syndrome

#33

Post by throwawaymath » Mon, Nov 12, 2018, 12:34 AM UTC

richardbdrowley wrote: post #31

throwawaymath wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that's interesting. We start with approximately 33 bits needed to uniquely identify her. She lives in Havana, which immediately slices 11 bits from our search space (the population of Havana is around 2.13 million, or ~2^21). She's female, so we can roughly cut our population in half again; now we're only at 20 bits. She worked in the Havana embassy in 2017 and was one of the people impacted by the strange heal…

She doesn't live in Havana anymore.

Well actually between having worked in the embassy and having twins in 2005, there are still theoretically enough bits to uniquely identify her. Knowing where she lives just bolsters the selection a bit.

Re: The Mystery of the Havana Syndrome

#34

Post by molticrystal » Mon, Nov 12, 2018, 12:57 AM UTC

They said it wasn't likely a toxin, or at least there were no toxins that screening picked up on. But could some other fungus/mold or other pathogen infect the people there or could they accumulate a toxin that wasn't screened for? Just how clean did they get and keep that place at?

Re: The Mystery of the Havana Syndrome

#35

Post by mimi89999 » Mon, Nov 12, 2018, 1:12 AM UTC

warent wrote: post #2

I'm an American going to Havana tomorrow until Friday. Here's to hoping my head doesn't get long-range microwaved...?

I recommend avoiding staying close to windows. I think that such an attack is very unlikely to happen in a crowded area. Not sure if earmuffs can help.

The article only reported cases of diplomatic personnel being affected, but I found some other sources stating that tourists were also affected, but those sources are not as reliable as this one.

Anyway, with the number of tourists traveling there, it is very unlikely that you might get affected.