quote:

Marasmus is caused by a severe deficiency of nearly all nutrients, especially protein, carbohydrates, and lipids.

pookel posted:

The Winchesters' baby died of marasmus? Wikipedia says:


That's not actually disease, it's just starvation. I wonder if it was caused in this case by some other disease not recognized at the time, or if it was as simple as untreated failure to thrive. Either way, depressing.

pookel posted:

The Winchesters' baby died of marasmus? Wikipedia says:


That's not actually disease, it's just starvation. I wonder if it was caused in this case by some other disease not recognized at the time, or if it was as simple as untreated failure to thrive. Either way, depressing.

Irisi posted:

In a great deal of cases in the developing world currently it's caused by contaminated water. If the baby took in water laden with parasites or bacteria then its' poor wee body would have succumbed to infection and diarrhea, etc. Without antibiotics and intravenous fluids, a baby would waste away very quickly.

(Most awfully, the contaminated water could well have come from the way the baby was fed. Bottle feeding and artificial formulas was gaining popularity amongst the middle and upper classes in Victorian UK and America in the 1860s'. The bottle shapes and rubber stoppers meant they were impossible to clean properly, which led to infection, and the formula milk was often no more than flour and arrowroot powder. Babies quite often wasted away on it, given it had no fats or protein in it, not like cow or human milk. )

quote:

In the late 1800’s ‘Banjo’ shaped infant feeders were introduced to the marketplace. The latter day nicknames of 'The killer' and the 'The murderer' were, however, far more apt as the ‘Banjo’ was impossible to clean and hygiene was a joke.

quote:

Breastfeeding had a number of things working against it in the Victorian-era United States. Sigmund Freud’s theory held that infants suckling at their mothers’ teats were exhibiting incestuous desires. In response to both Freud’s theory and “evolution,” Victorian mothers substituted bottle-feeding for the breast.

Forward-thinking mothers believed bottle feeding to be the future of child rearing. They also assumed recently invented “scientific” baby formulas and “treated” cow’s milk represented a healthier alternative to simple breast milk. They were wrong. The cow’s milk from which most infant formulas were derived was typically unpasteurized. The milk that mothers fed their children was frequently spoiled and riddled with bacteria.

During the 1890s in Chicago, Illinois, one study found 15 “hand-fed” babies were dying for each breast-fed infant. The medical community responded with one of the most aggressive public health campaigns in history. In Minneapolis, for example, the Breast Feeding Investigation Bureau of the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Minnesota was formed to assist every new mother in the area with any lactation-related issues. Posters and literature touting the benefits of breastfeeding became de rigueur across American cities. While breastfeeding never reached the levels physicians hoped for, they were able to make enormous, corrective strides to reduce infant mortality rates in the US and spurred on a successful campaign for pasteurized cow’s milk.

quote:

Thirteen babies died of malnutrition in 2004 and almost 200 were hospitalized in Anhui Province after drinking milk powder with no nutritional content.

benito posted:

There was the 2008 Chinese Milk Scandal in which baby formula was found to be adulterated with melamine, the same chemical that killed a bunch of cats and dogs from tainted pet food. But here's the one that has always terrified me:

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2008/09/22/2003423869


A baby formula company was literally making formula with no nutritional content. And that's not a case of somebody not wearing a hair net or some bizarre cow disease, it's an entire company deciding to cut corners by making something that would vaguely look like milk when combined with water.

Chichevache posted:

After reading posts in this thread about overpopulation I look upon these men as heroes.

atomicthumbs posted:

Chichevache posted:

Mate, if you think I'm serious you've been reading this thread too much. Go hug your children or play in the park with your dog or something.

lenoon posted:

Threads is all about my home town. Now that's depressing!

Will get on the effort post at some point this weekend.

benito posted:

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2008/09/22/2003423869

A baby formula company was literally making formula with no nutritional content. And that's not a case of somebody not wearing a hair net or some bizarre cow disease, it's an entire company deciding to cut corners by making something that would vaguely look like milk when combined with water.

A Spider Covets posted:

i like ghosts and demon possession related things. i dont actually believe in ghosts or possession but i love the idea and find it fun to pretend-believe. pls post a bunch of really cool stories about ghosts/demon posession and i will, in turn, post a funny animal gif for u. or a spooky gif, if the OP desires.

tia

DemonDarkhorse posted:

Family in the late 80s begins to experience stereotypical poltergeist activity in their new home, but then the walls start leaking blood plasma and an investigator gets hanged in the attic.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread672735/pg1

The whole documentary, filled with cheesy effects, but genuinely pretty creepy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwSIczexst0

Khazar-khum posted:

Where IS the Ghost Story Thread, anyways?

Mr. Gibbycrumbles posted:

Sounds like a Libertarian utopia!

cptn_dr posted:

Not in GBS anymore, that's for sure.

JibbaJabberwocky posted:

edit: I just stumbled upon this article. It seems legit but I'm not familiar with the site so take that with a grain of salt. Apparently some Polish fisherman recently caught the biggest and oldest catfish ever (12 ft long, 400lbs, and 100 years old). When they opened it up they found the remains of a Nazi SS officer inside of the fish who had died and been eaten by it in the early 1940's.

http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/remains-of-nazi-officer-discovered-inside-100-year-old-giant-catfish/

IShallRiseAgain posted:

I for one want more stories about people's boring rear end nightmares or how they heard ~spooky~ noises in their house one time and it was totally a ghost.

Alereon posted:

That's a joke site, ala Weekly World News.

JibbaJabberwocky posted:

If anyone legitimately wants to find it, it's in PYF. I just bumped it with DemonDarkhorse's link because it was topical to that thread.

edit: I just stumbled upon this article. It seems legit but I'm not familiar with the site so take that with a grain of salt. Apparently some Polish fisherman recently caught the biggest and oldest catfish ever (12 ft long, 400lbs, and 100 years old). When they opened it up they found the remains of a Nazi SS officer inside of the fish who had died and been eaten by it in the early 1940's.

http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/remains-of-nazi-officer-discovered-inside-100-year-old-giant-catfish/

Chicken Butt posted:

Update: the indigestible Nazi guy came back to life and is currently rampaging through the Polish countryside. Apparently he mostly turns up behind people who have just gotten out of the shower and are wiping the fog off of their bathroom mirrors.

This is totally true, guys

benito posted:

There was the 2008 Chinese Milk Scandal in which baby formula was found to be adulterated with melamine, the same chemical that killed a bunch of cats and dogs from tainted pet food.

Astrofig posted:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aokigahara

Also known as the Suicide Forest, Aokigahara is a dense forest with unique properties that make it almost prenaturally quiet and still. Combined with its remote location it's a very popular suicide destination, with people even coming from other countries to kill themselves there. The Japanese authorities have officially stopped releasing the numbers of bodies found there annually in an effort to curb the suicides. It apparently hasn't worked.

Linked to that is a list of popular places around the world to do oneself in. Bridges seem to be the most common, though Niagara Falls appears to win for sheer numbers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_sites

Astrofig posted:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aokigahara

Also known as the Suicide Forest, Aokigahara is a dense forest with unique properties that make it almost prenaturally quiet and still. Combined with its remote location it's a very popular suicide destination, with people even coming from other countries to kill themselves there. The Japanese authorities have officially stopped releasing the numbers of bodies found there annually in an effort to curb the suicides. It apparently hasn't worked.

Linked to that is a list of popular places around the world to do oneself in. Bridges seem to be the most common, though Niagara Falls appears to win for sheer numbers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_sites

Jack Gladney posted:

When I was at Cornell, one of the big debates was whether or not to install nets under the bridges because some people thought that nets would give the idea of suicide to people who wouldn't have otherwise considered it, like the suicide forest statistics. I'm glad to see they just stuck security guards there to make it awkward for everyone.

Death Zebra posted:

There was a place in China where an employer installed nets between buildings..........in response to complaints about working conditions being so poor that people were committing suicide.

Gibfender posted:

That was Foxconn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn_suicides

Gibfender posted:

That was Foxconn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn_suicides

Jack Gladney posted:

When I was at Cornell, one of the big debates was whether or not to install nets under the bridges because some people thought that nets would give the idea of suicide to people who wouldn't have otherwise considered it, like the suicide forest statistics. I'm glad to see they just stuck security guards there to make it awkward for everyone.

Polaron posted:

Nets/fences on bridges are proven to cut down on suicides. It's why San Francisco's refusal to put any on Golden Gate, a popular suicide hotspot, for reasons of aesthetics was so amazingly callous.