On 30 jaan, 00:33, Wildepad <noreplies> wrote:
> On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:33:08 -0800 (PST), Crown-Horned Snorkack
>
> <chornedsnork...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >On 28 jaan, 21:31, Wildepad <noreplies> wrote:
> >> It has the benefit of limiting physical damage (no one is going to
> >> pass out while driving or flying, most industrial processes will be
> >> shut down when relief shifts don't appear, etc.)
>
> >Or they will not.
>
> >For a normal adult human to stay awake for 36 hours is unpleasant but
> >feasible most of time, given motivation. They would be somewhat tired,
> >but able to stay awake. Skipping a night is something very many people
> >have sometimes done.
>
> I used to do it quite often myself. But after a certain point, you
> start doing what might be called micro-naps, just a few seconds that
> you have to jerk yourself out of.
>
Even when standing or walking?
> >When the effects start, and people who are due to wake up cannot be
> >awakened, the people already awake include some who were planning to
> >go to sleep soon as well as some who woke well-rested shortly before
> >the effect started.
>
> Perfectly true. But if the timing is right for the area you want to
> hit first, that number could be around 1% of the population.
>
True. But this 1 % would include the night shift of your hospital.
> >When the people who said they wanted to get just a short nap cannot be
> >awakened when due, those still awake will get scared. They will
> >therefore have a powerful motive to stay awake. A few might fail...
> >but a large part of your hospital watch would be still awake in 26
> >hours.
>
> The most usual routine for third-shift workers[1] is to wake up about
> two hours before they have to clock in. If they don't awaken, then you
> have a staff that's already been awake for ten to twelve hours.
>
> Given that midnight shifts are skeleton staffs, most will go home as
> usual,
Er, why? When they have a number of people who have been delivered by
ambulances as being in coma/impossible to awaken?
possibly taking what precautions they can against viral or gas
> attack. That leaves a tiny percentage of the staff, and they've been
> harried for hours, and there's nothing they can do to stop the
> problem, and a quick nap can't hurt . . .
>
As soon as one of the physicians on the night shift tries a quick nap
and develops the same symptoms as all the patients flooding in, the
others quickly realize cause and effect.
> >> Since it is limitations that create tension (Superman/Kryptonite, for
> >> example), the weapon has to have some Achilles heel. In this case,
> >> it's that anyone in a Faraday cage is protected from the effect.
>
> >What is a good enough Faraday cage?
>
> >Assuming that iron armature in ferroconcrete is not good enough, what
> >about steel structure of ships?
>
> People in ships (especially submarines) should be safe, but they're
> also not likely to land until they get hard and fast information about
> what's causing the problem, and that could easily take a day or two.
>
Er, why? Plenty of ships are moored in ports and harbours, with
gangways in place. When the emergency services on land report getting
flooded by the people who did not wake and that no one has woken at
all, the ship watch would reply that people are waking as usual.
It could also be that the tourists in cheap cabins in the inside and
bottom of the ship - good Faraday cages - wake up, while the people in
suites - with outside views and big glass windows - do not.
> >> You work the graveyard shift and normally awaken about ten o'clock at
> >> night. When your wife/girlfriend/so can't rouse you, you're taken to
> >> the hospital where they are already becoming overwhelmed by similar
> >> patients.
>
> >Which time in the evening did the effect start?
>
> >Since few people are due to awaken ten o=B4clock at night, the first
> >victims are inconspicuous. Although most people are still awake... so
> >they could hear radio and TV broadcasts advising them to stay awake.
>
> The story is set where the effect starts about 9:30 at night.
>
> TV and radio could not be expected to pick up the story for hours.
Why? How long would it take for them to pick up a mass disaster like
people failing to wake for no clear reason?
At
> first, the "anyone who falls asleep won't awaken" won't be immediately
> obvious -- it'll probably be assumed to be some sort of virus that
> people who were active x hours before were exposed to.
>
> Any health alerts would be along the line of: "If you were out and
> about at three this morning, get examined as soon as possible."
>
> It won't be until someone in the hospital takes a nap and can't be
> awakened that anyone will suspect the truth, and sleeping during
> working hours is usually frowned on.
>
People who stay up later could check their family members who already
went to sleep, and discover that they are also ill.
> Even then, what are they going to tell people? You can't go on the air
> and say: "We think that anyone who goes to sleep won't wake up. We
> don't know why, or how long it'll last, or what anyone can do about
> it, but be warned that taking a nap might prove fatal."
>
Why not?
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