Slashdot Mirror
Mysterious Peruvian Meteor Disease Solved
Technician writes "The meteor that crashed in Peru caused a mystery illnesses. The cause of the illness has been found. The meteor was not toxic. The ground water it contacted contains arsenic. The resulting steam cloud is what caused the mystery illness.
"The meteorite created the gases when the object's hot surface met an underground water supply tainted with arsenic, the scientists said." There is a very good photo of the impact crater in the article. The rim of the crater is lined with people for a size comparison."
It's funny because it's poisonous.
Bah! That's what they want you to believe. I prefer to believe my own complex conspiracy theory involving secret government projects, space aliens, and duct tape.
If it weren't for those meddling scientists!
http://blog.heavensdomain.net
The symptoms match.
And, before anyone starts up with the whole "apple seed" thing - that's cyanide, not arsenic.
Misery loves company. Online misery loves unsuspecting random strangers.
The whole world ooohs and ahhhs at your mysterious meteor and the local chamber of commerce is rubbing its hands together, thinking about how many tourists will be dropping by to see the Terror From the Skies and then--oh, no, never mind. Sorry, folks, nothing to see here. We're just slobs and our place is a toxic shithole. Sorry about that. Just call us Newark south.
A mundane reason for the illnesses.
I guess I'll go put my tin-foil hat away..... Oh! Wait! How about if I claim a government cover-up? Where are the men in black?
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
I read on Pravda that the "meteor" was actually a downed US spy sat and it was done as a blue-on-blue false flag strike to be blamed on certain foreign powers as a prelude to starting a new war. The locals were suffering from radiation sickness from the plutonium core on the sat! And now you're saying there's a reasonable explanation? Feh. Pravda is my new Weekly World News, I just wish they'd pick up the Bat Boy features. I've been wondering what that little scamp is up to.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
I'll just bet the water it contacted was, upon further study, found to be wet.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
Misery loves company. Online misery loves unsuspecting random strangers.
The ground water it contacted contains arsenic.
Sounds like they have bigger things to worry about than silly meteors.
Have we learned nothing from 1950's horror movies?
Or even 1970's science fiction?
If it's glowing, and just came from outer space, RUN. AWAY.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.
By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
Meteor's don't impact anything but meteorites do. Perhaps confusingly they leave a meteor crater.
I'll stick to tap water.
Much about nature sucks.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
There's an alternate theory going around- a Peruvian SCUD missile gone awry, and the fuel (Inhibited Fuming Red Nitric Acid) is what made people sick.
Please help metamoderate.
the glow of reentry is compression heating of the air in front of the meteorite, not the meteorite itself.
Who said it was the meteorite itself that heated the ground water? Compression heating is perfectly capable of it.
E pluribus unum
Wouldnt actually producing the meteorite be proof? Isnt it a little premature to jump the gun with the assumption that the meteorite that was steaming hot causing all this groundwater steam to be produced? When no actual meteorite has been produced. So far, all that has been produced it whats called a 3-inch metallic fragment that CONTAINS iron.
Aside from the fact that meteorites are actually cold when they hit the ground, it just doesnt seem to be a very valid conclusion without any actual evidence to support it. This would fail a 7-th grade science class project on the scientific method. At least it would when I was in 7th grade... is this what passes now?
So to simplify, these are the verifiable facts;
1) There is a big hole in the ground.
2) Something made a big hole in the ground.
2) There were reports of the water appearing to 'boil' in the hole shortly after it was formed.
3) There is arsenic contained in some nearby groundwater aquifers.
4) Water boils when an object that is immersed in it contains ENOUGH specific heat to cause the water to reach its boiling point
5) No meteorite has been shown to exist physically (a 3-inch fragment that simply contains the element iron is not proof)
6) No peer reveiw has been done on the results or fragment claimed by the ONE man from the peruvian govt.
In short, coming to a conclusion of "It was a meteorite" is simply not able to be substantiated by the available evidence. IF numbers 5, and 6 are shown to be non-negative over more time, then and only then could it even be POSSIBLE that this was a meteorite.
Can anyone provide more supporting evidence that fits with the meteorite theory?
You guys are so dense. Arsenic this and UFO that. Pffft! Just look at the pictrue in that article. Doesn't it remind of another very VERY famous picture of similar nature? Goddammit! Do you want me to actually explain it? On /.? Really? The link under that pic says "Enlarge this" How is that for a hint?
HE IS BACK!!!
Politicians and Pedophiles: Two groups of exploitive bastards who are most dangerous when they're thinking of children.
Excerpts:
"Even as meteorite samples arrived in Lima Thursday for testing, Peruvian scientists seemed to unanimously agree that it was a meteorite that had struck their territory."
How can the scientist unanimously agree (unuusual in itself) if the samples were just arriving?
"Preliminary analysis by Macedo's institute revealed no metal fragments, indicating a rare rock meteorite."
I don't think there has ever been a meteorite in the past with 'metal fragments' if, by that term, they mean an unoxidized form of a metal. Many meterites contain iron, a 'metal,' but it is has always been present in an oxidized form. Maybe they mean that there was a complete absence of metals, oxidized or unoxidized, which would not be at all unusual (and certainly not 'rare). However, in that case, the next part of the article makes no sense:
"The samples also had a significant amount of magnetic material "characteristic of meteorites," she said. "The samples stick to the magnet," Ishitsuka, the astronomer, confirmed. "That shows that there is iron present." "
All in all, the article provides no useful information other than to say that arsenic is present in the groundwater, the arsenic ions were somehow present in significant quantities in the steam clouds created by the meteorite impact, and people inhaled the steam clouds and thereby somehow absorbed a significant amount of arsenic.