On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:12:05 -0800 (PST), Crown-Horned Snorkack
<chornedsnorkack@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>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:
>> >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.
But they would have no reason to stay at the hospital. They will
quickly learn there's nothing they can do for the patients already
there, they're too full to take anyone new, and they all have lives
outside the hospital: people/pets/whatever to take care of, or
supplies they want, etc.
>> 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?
Why should they stay if there's nothing they can do for them?
>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.
They might notice effect, but there's still no clue as to cause.
They'll still be thinking it might be exposure to something hours
before.
>> >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.
That is an incredibly small number of people, and it would reinforce
the idea that the cause is exposure to some agent rather than being a
factor of their being surrounded by steel.
>> 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?
First of all, the hospitals would report it to the board of health
rather than giving it directly to a news agency. Assuming the board of
health is staffed at night, they'd waste a considerable amount of time
trying to contact the execs for a decision as to whether the public
should be notified.
Second, at that time of day there are no news people at most stations.
They're on call, most likely home in bed.
So the story would have to filter up to the national level, and then
filter back down with orders for local technicians to interrupt the
taped programs with a news announcement.
On 9/11, there were local stations that didn't carry the story until a
full hour after the first airplane struck the tower, and that was a
very clear-cut case of "this is important." People not waking up is
far less urgent.
>> 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?
Because it's spreading fear and causing panic, which are things you
can later be sued for.
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