Slashdot Mirror
The Odd Effects of Being Struck By Lightning
HughPickens.com writes: "Ferris Jabr reports in Outside Magazine that every year, more than 500 Americans are struck by lightning. Roughly 90 percent of them will survive, but those survivors will be instantly, fundamentally altered in ways that still leave scientists scratching their heads. For example, Michael Utley was a successful stockbroker who often went skiing and windsurfing before he was struck by lightning. Today, at 62, he lives on disability insurance. "I don't work. I can't work. My memory's fried, and I don't have energy like I used to. I aged 30 years in a second." Lightning also dramatically altered Utley's personality. "It made me a mean, ornery son of a b****." Utley created a website devoted to educating people about preventing lightning injury and started regularly speaking at schools and doing guest spots on televised weather reports.
Mary Ann Cooper, professor emerita at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is one of the few medical doctors who have attempted to investigate how lightning alters the brain's circuitry. According to Cooper, the evidence suggests lightning injuries are, for the most part, injuries to the brain, the nervous system, and the muscles. Lightning can ravage or kill cells, but it can also leave a trail of much subtler damage and Cooper and other researchers speculate that chronic issues are the result of lightning scrambling each individual survivor's unique internal circuitry (PDF). "Those who attempt to return to work often find they are unable to carry out their former functions and after a few weeks, when coworkers get weary of 'covering' for them, they either are put on disability (if they are lucky) or fired," she writes.
Mary Ann Cooper, professor emerita at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is one of the few medical doctors who have attempted to investigate how lightning alters the brain's circuitry. According to Cooper, the evidence suggests lightning injuries are, for the most part, injuries to the brain, the nervous system, and the muscles. Lightning can ravage or kill cells, but it can also leave a trail of much subtler damage and Cooper and other researchers speculate that chronic issues are the result of lightning scrambling each individual survivor's unique internal circuitry (PDF). "Those who attempt to return to work often find they are unable to carry out their former functions and after a few weeks, when coworkers get weary of 'covering' for them, they either are put on disability (if they are lucky) or fired," she writes.
Having millions of volts of electricy pumped through a person's body causes nervous system damage and changes. Who would have guessed?
...The Odd Effects of Being Struck By Lightning...
And here I was hoping for special powers like instant genius or telepathic abilities, and it turns out that the best we can hope for is instant Alzheimer?
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
The last sentence of the summary explains a lot:
"Those who attempt to return to work often find they are unable to carry out their former functions and after a few weeks, when coworkers get weary of 'covering' for them, they either are put on disability (if they are lucky) or fired or made Slashdot editors (if they are really unlucky)," she writes."
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
I worked for a lightning research lab in college. From what I remember
Well, if you were hit by lightning during that time, you probably won't remember!
That's the whole point of the article . . . or don't you remember what the article was all about . . . ?
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
All of them become conductors.
I was recently struck by lightning. I am writing you to renew my request for a date per your stated conditions.
Have gnu, will travel.
I was part of the ground circuit when lightning struck my house and blew the ring main on its way through - I had the misfortune of happening to be plugging in the TV at the time, got thrown across the room. Only permanent effect as far as I can tell is a marked reduction in tolerance for idiots.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
It's because they couldn't resist.
This is a serious question: Did you notice any impact on your ability to obtain and maintain an erection after you were hit by lightning?
Years back, I worked with one fellow who survived a lightning strike. He said it was actually the best thing that had ever happened to him. Before being hit, he suffered from extreme difficulties obtaining an erection, and even when he managed to get one he couldn't sustain it for more than a minute or two. But after being hit, he said those problems went away. As he described it, he was then able to get the "fattest throbbing fatties" (I think those were his words, or something along those lines) that he'd ever had, and he'd talk about how he could "screw his wife for hours" before ejaculating.
Did you notice anything similar?
the brain an nervous system is a complex and fragile low voltage electrical signaling system
lets zap it with lightning
best we can guess is that "Mary Ann Cooper, professor emerita at the University of Illinois at Chicago" who by the way retired in 2008 says that lighting fucks shit up
good god damn job
reaction time suffers as well
An African or European lightning bolt?
Michael Utley was a successful stockbroker who often went skiing and windsurfing before he was struck by lightning. Today, at 62, he lives on disability insurance. "I don't work. I can't work. My memory's fried, and I don't have energy like I used to. I aged 30 years in a second." Lightning also dramatically altered Utley's personality. "It made me a mean, ornery son of a b****."
Had it been an example where he became a greenpeace or PETA speaker or something, it might be more shocking but this doesn't come across as entirely surprising.
Doctor, he's fine. He still skims through Slashdot articles; you'd be better off checking his responses to ACs or goat.se links. Don't cut him loose on e-bay, not yet.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
In other words, did you gain any screw-per-powers?
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
They should have stayed ohm that day.
"In 1994, when Tony Cicoria was 42 years old, he was struck by lightning near Albany, New York, while standing next to a public telephone. He had just hung up the phone and was about a foot away when a rogue bolt of lightning struck. He recalled seeing his own body on the ground surrounded by a bluish-white light. Cicoria’s heart had apparently stopped, but he was resuscitated by a woman, (coincidentally an intensive-care-unit nurse) who was waiting to use the telephone.[2][3]"
Holy crap!.... makes me almost want to believe in some sort of higher power.
110 or 220?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Either that, or we all read the articles but then are struck by lightning and forg....
*ZZZZAAAAPPP!!!!*
What was I posting about again?
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Would have been a chance to catch up with current events.
Have you read my blog lately?
Yeah, I hear they get really amped up about the experience.
I don't know watt you're talking about -- clearly their lives weren't impeded by the event.