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Woman Killed In Wii-Related Competition
snuffin writes to tell us that a local radio competition to "hold your wee for a Wii" has ended with a Sacramento woman dead from water poisoning. From the article: "An Associated Press interview with another contestant, named James Ybarra, claimed that contestants were initially given eight ounce bottles of water to drink every fifteen minutes, with larger bottles being used once contestants began to drop out. According to Ybarra, 'They told us if you don't feel like you can do this, don't put your health at risk.' He described the victim as 'a nice lady' and that 'she was telling me about her family and her three kids and how she was doing it for her kids.'"
What a stupid world.
Perhaps life really is full of possibilities.
A woman wasn't killed, she died as a result of self induced water intoxication. It's a difference that means a lot. The headline makes it sound like a sport killing of some kind. Would have been more appropriate to say "Woman dies In Wii-Related Competition".
I knew you could drown in the stuff, but dying from drinking too much of it? Wow. Didn't know that.
This is not some mysterious malady. The radio station is off the scale negligent for putting contestants in the position of potential serious harm:
I'd had this argument many times with a friend about my water intake. I've always known my intake was fine (hint: coffee counts...), but in the course of that discussion I found many articles on the problems one could encounter by drinking too much water.
I won't claim any person on the street should know the dangers of drinking too much water, but the people putting on this contest (sorry, stunt) could have recognized they were in deep waters with a modicum of research.
I'm not much for lawsuits, but I hope the radio station that put on this stunt makes significant remedy to the lady's family.
Interviewed the winner and asked him or her how they felt about owning the Death WII.
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
Who the hell came up with that name? See kids, this is why crack is illegal.
... I thought turkeys could fly.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
In other news, a Kansas City man died after slipping in pools of urine surrounding PS3 boxes at a local Best Buy.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
Before calling the poor woman a lemming/ a candidate for Darwin's award blahblahblah, I got to ask why can't they (the organisers) supply isotonic sports drink in this sort of competition?
Water intoxication is more common than many of us would like to think. It is part of the reason why many marathons now supply sports drink in addition to water. Newbies in many cases either don't drink enough or cannot stop drinking until water drains them from the inside.
Ne quid nimis. Aristotle was right.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Sorry in advance:
Her family is probably pretty "Pissed". This contest really went down the "Toilet". I can't believe how it's been "Sprayed" all over the news. Talk about a "Drinking Problem". As said to the second place contestant: "Urine" luck! I guess she didn't really get a fair "Shake".
Cool! Amazing Toys.
If you can't figure out why a mother of three is ineligible for the Darwin Awards, I think you may need to climb out of the gene pool yourself.
Jurisprudence Fetishist Gets Off On A Technicality --theonion.com
They should have had them drinking Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator. It's got what Moms crave. It's got electrolytes.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Dihydrogen Monoxide is Dangerous! They've been telling us for years, but we just don't listen!
http://www.dhmo.org/
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
"Hold your wee for a Wii"
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Why is the radio station obliged to understand the danger, but the contestants are not?
Because the radio station is putting the contestants in the danger that they need to understand in the first place.
If I did something stupid like this, I'd be up on charges of manslaughter. So would you.
It doesn't mean you wouldn't get off (You might...but you'd still get tried for it in most cases...)- but just because it's a radio station (or other business) doesn't let you off of culpability for this sort of thing.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Clearly this water stuff is a dangerous substance that needs to be controlled. I think it should only be available from behind the pharmacy counter, that way kids don't get ahold of it and drink themselves to death.
With such a gigantic user community, I am always amazed how long it takes Slashdot to pick up stories. When I first started reading, I was finding out about new and obscure stories and events left and right it seemed, but now I'm hearing stories like this on the local radio long before it his Slashdot. Is it because there literally are so many stories being submitted, or is the staff and community at Slashdot just that behind lately?
...did she win?
"On a scale from 1 to 10, people are stupid"
From Wikipedia:
What is this 8th grade English class?
wtf???? Try to get a payout? Do you think this woman's kids are jumping up and down in anticipation of making some money over their mother's death? There may be frivolous lawsuits (not nearly as many as people think,) but this is a case that the legal system was made for.
Basically, the combination of you drinking too much water and not getting rid of it throws your electrolytes out of whack... you have too much water, so the concentration of electrolytes isn't high enough for your body to carry signals. It happens a lot with marathon runners. Especially runners that don't stop to pee. Many people have died from this even though they were getting enough because they refused to pee out the excess water.
I think my principles are reachin' an all time low
I'm not one to support frivolous lawsuits, but when I first heard about this contest a week or so back I wondered if they were aware that drinking too much water can be extremely dangerous. Apparently not, the "you can quit at any time if you feel bad" wasn't much of a disclaimer. From all the reports I've read, they didn't even consult with doctors.
I'm sad that my initial assumption that this would turn out bad came true. I'd rather be wrong on things like this.
Hey, I have an idea! Let's have a contest where people shoot apples off each other's heads William Tell style! I bet that'd get great ratings!
The cake is a pie
>Why is the radio station obliged to understand the danger,
>but the contestants are not?
Because the radio station is planning the freakin contest. They have staff devoted to planning the thing, and it's their responsibility to make sure that the event goes smoothly and safely.
Sheesh, you could sue the station if you slipped on the ice on their sidewalk. Why would this be any different?
When I began my Lithium treatment, I experienced my first encounter with what I call "Lithium Thirst". Extreme unquenchable thirst - until you've experienced Lithium Thirst, you haven't experienced thirst. I'd easily go through at least 2-4L in an hour sometimes. What you have to remember is that as your body's sodium level drops (due to the water) your body starts to retain as much liquid/etc as possible to "retain" the sodium, which only screws the body up more as more water gets added. A healthy salt intake is really needed. With Lithium a healthy salt intake is really important as it aids in removing the element from your body.
0H WAIT, THEN THERE WOULD BE NO ONE LEFT T0 POST ON SHITD0T!!
You're plainly wrong, sir. I haven't owned a video game machine since the Atari 2600. I demand an apology; I'm an entirely different kind of fucktard.
Oh, Wait...
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
I'm trying to understand your comment, and I see three possibilities. Either:
(a) You believe this woman intentionally got herself killed in order to collect easy money from the radio station.
(b) You don't believe that the radio station, which set the rules of this contest and provided enticement for people to participate, was at all negligent in not exploring the possible injuries that could result from it.
(c) Your comment had nothing to do with this case, you just have a problem with lawsuits in general.
Assuming (c), I feel like I should point out that, given the facts as we currently understand them, this would hardly be a frivolous lawsuit. The radio station was clearly negligent in not exploring the hazards of what they were encouraging people to do and, although you may not think it's fair, they have an obligation under the law to do so.
Furthermore, the example you cited with the GPS, aside from sounding like an obvious urban legend, doesn't actually map to this situation. Anyone with a driver's license should know that you look before you turn your car, but understanding the risks of this sort of contest would require some basic medical training. It is therefore reasonable to expect a driver to look before turning and not reasonable to expect the average person to understand the health risks of this sort of activity.
Which is, ultimately, why we as a society have lawsuits like this. The radio station was obligated to do their due-diligence before enticing people into this behavior. And that's why they're going to get clobbered by the lawsuit that will come from this.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Why the heck didn't they use Gatorade instead of water?
Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
Those who know of frat initiations also know how dangerous this is.
During the early 90's many colleges and Frats were banning drinking, in order to continue with the traditions of the frats, they replaced beer with water.
Imagine a keggar with water, including all the stupid drinking games.
People didn't know how dangerous this was. The universities and Frats approved the activity as childish fun, until people started dying from the hyperhydration.
Beer funnels killed students with or without beer.
too much of anything is a bad thing.
"She died" is middle voice, as are many other intransitive verbs in English. The active and passive voices of this clause are "She killed" and "She was killed". The forms "killed" vs. "died" show suppletion per voice in the same way that "go" vs. "went" show suppletion per tense.
I've put together the following email addresses of KDND's sponsors, so if you think that the folks at KDND are a bunch of negligent twits who probably don't deserve their advertising dollars then why not email these companies and let them know?
Info@urban-body.com, hr@wyotech.com, smichaels@sierracollege.edu, foundation@sierracollege.edu, marc.goff@US.REDBULL.COM, cs_online@albertsons.com, lgradisher@jewels.com, mediarelations@officedepot.com, communityrelations@officedepot.com, corpcsf@wellsfargo.com, home.pa-newsroom.168d00@statefarm.com, admin@PowerTripBev.com, kburns@ckr.com, chopkins@ckr.com, customerservice@partsamerica.com, oshgift@osh.com, customerservice@tillys.com, info@heald.edu, info@louderlaw.com, dale@sleeptrain.com, webmaster@NissanUSA.com, joseph.l.goode@bankofamerica.com You can also contact KDND's general sales manager at fhormell@entercom.com
Different people have different reactions. One time, when I was dehydrated, I walked into my regular coffee shop and asked for the biggest cup of tap water they had. 42oz. I drained it in under 20s, and asked for another, and then another. A gallon of water in about 2 minutes. I kept it all down, much to the amazement of the girl behind the counter who had never seen anybody drink as much. By the time I got home, I had to go to the can. Badly. ;)
Drinking a gallon of water in one sitting is pretty stupid. Could have caused serious problems for me. And I sincerely doubt I could drink that much now. But the point is that there's a million and one factors that can affect how much of anything you can take before your body has an adverse reaction. And as this story tells, the adverse reaction isn't always immediate.
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
...water bottles in the US of A don't carry some sort of fancy warning label like "Drinking to much water can kill you".
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
Water intoxication and other hyponatrimic conditions aren't directly caused by failure to conduct electricity. The direct cause is related to osmotic pressure: With a rapid intake of water, the fluid in the bloodstream and other interstitial (the places between cells) fluids experience a rapid decrease in salt concentration. This means that there is a large gradient between concentrations of solvents at the border of the cellular membrane. The two solutions will "try" to equalize in terms of amounts of solvents (the word try is in quotes because it is an anthropomorphism, what actually happens is the solvent and solutes will dissipate in such as way as to achieve the lowest energy state, according to the laws of thermodynamics.) Salts, sugars and many other of the dissolved chemicals can not pass through the cell membrane quickly, but water can pass freely. Water therefore flows freely into the cell in "an attempt" at equalizing the concentrations of solvent and solute. The large gradient means water flows very quickly into the cell, leading to a buildup of pressure. This pressure will distort the shape of the cell, hampering it's function or even cause the cell to rupture. This happens in just about all cells in the body, and the system that can least handle the deformation and subsequent loss of function is the nervous system. When the nervous system shuts down far enough, it can no longer control heart rate or breathing, and the person (or animal) can subsequently die from this shutdown if nothing is done to reverse the osmotic imbalance such as giving diuretics, intravenous administration of appropriate amounts of hypertonic (I.E. more salt and other solvents than the blood normally carries) solutions.
In fact, it really doesn't matter WHICH solute or solutes are low in concentration. It's a matter of the concentration of water in the blood is simply too high, causing osmotic pressure. But the imbalance is easiest measured by measuring the concentration of sodium in the blood, so the imbalance is called hyponatrimia, or low sodium levels.
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
Not really, actually.
Water intoxication is a strange thing.
See, it's all about electrolytes in your body. If she normally drank things loaded with crap and junk and a lot of salt, she'd be able to slam down a lot of water.
My guess? She was a low / no sodium fanatic.
I did a bit of digging about this a while ago (because over the summer I was working in 100-degree-plus heat). If you have a lot of sodium and other electrolytes in your body, you will dehydrate faster, but you also can REhydrate faster without danger. Low electrolytes, you can survive with a lower total volume of water in your body, but you become very susceptable to water intoxication when you try to rehydrate.
Basically, if you're in the heat, if you're sweating a lot, if you'll wind up gorging on water at some point.. eat salty foods. Yes, the salt "dehydrates" you, but it makes it so that you are able to hold a greater quantity of water in your body safely. And since you sweat the salt out anyway.. it's really actually very critical, and healthy.
Low sodium diets should be ONLY for those with serious hypertension, blood pressure type issues (which also means they limit their physical activity), and for those with such a low level of physical activity that it's probably unhealthy how much they don't move. Aside from that? Eat salt. If you eat more salt, just GET SOME EXERCISE, IT'S GOOD FOR YOU.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
"You find this so funny you pissed yourself?"
Actually it was just another play on the 'wii' bit... seriously, you can't actually pass out from too much irony ya know.
"Then you moan and cry about the moderation you got from your sorry ass comment?"
Troll, flamebait, overrated, I would have been fine with. But off topic? It's just not true.
"I hope when a moment of extreme sorrow comes into your life"
Been there, done that. Everyone deals with things in different ways dude, and death, being one of the hardest things to deal with, introduces even wider ways of being dealt with than most other things we experience. You can't spend your whole life crying, you get nowhere, and may as well not be alive yourself. So you laugh, about some funny word or whatever, it doesn't matter, and hope it does make you insensitive, at least a little more than you'd usually be, because you can't cope if you soak up every little bad thing that happens.
It doesn't make you an arsehole, it just means you're trying to survive the best you can in a world where shit happens.
You'll understand as you get older. Or you'll get crushed by the weight of the world.
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
"When some piece of shit like you starts spouting about how she got what she deserved, well, I can only hope you share your opinion to as many people as possible in person. You'll get what you deserve too."
Nice. Truly. If you had read what I wrote, you'd have noticed I mentioned nothing about whether the woman deserved it. I said she did something stupid, which I think is hardly disputable. And I said she did it, most likely, through ignorance. Whether that equates to her deserving death or not is a completely different issue. Whether anyone deserves to die due to stupid behaviour or ignorance is not something I'm even sure I have an opinion on.
The point is: she freely chose to do something, and that thing was fatal. She should have known better for three reasons: Death by water consumption is not such an unheard of phenomenon, actually. I suspect most endurance athletes have heard of it, many medical people, and many livestock farmers as well. Not the majority by a long shot, but it's not exactly esoteric knowledge either. Secondly, it's just common sense that ingesting vast amounts of anything is dangerous, this should come as a surprise to no-one. Thirdly, our bodies have this amazing ability to signal us when we are consuming too much of something. Go try to drink a two litre bottle of water right now, you'll see what I mean. If she was so unaware of her body, she was being ignorant, if she was ignoring it, she was being stupid. Deservedness is irrelevant.
Why the station should be considered more responsible than the woman herself, for what was happening in the woman, is truly beyond me. If we really needed to be shepherded away from behaving in such a stupid fashion, one would think our beaches, river banks, bathtubs, and swimming pools would be littered with the bodies of people who lacked such sense. I haven't noticed that happening. Is it unfortunate? Definitely! Is it tragic? Definitely. It's too bad for her, her kids, and everyone else who cared about her. That doesn't mean the station should be held responsible for a bad decision that the woman made. The woman made a bad decision, a stupid decision, and unfortunately died because of it.
It may feel good to blame the station, but it isn't exactly rational. If they should have researched it more, why not the woman? Why is the station more responsible for finding out the dangers of what the woman puts in her mouth than the woman herself? It's really taking "save us from ourselves" a little too literally.