Sean Tracey wrote:
>> Has anybody ever heard of this. I studies Neuroscience at
> the University of Hartford for 2 year and never heard of
> anything even remotely related.
>> ------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
>> Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 18:55:53 -0300
> Reply-to: Jose Manoel Cruz Pereira Nunes <jmpnunes at MATRIX.COM.BR>
> From: Jose Manoel Cruz Pereira Nunes <jmpnunes at MATRIX.COM.BR>
> Subject: WEEKLY WORLD NEWS, May 24, 1994 MOSCOW
> To: Multiple recipients of list CHESS-L
> <CHESS-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL>
>> WEEKLY WORLD NEWS, May 24, 1994 MOSCOW
>> Doctors are blaming a rare electrical imbalance in the brain for the
> bizarre death of a chess player whose head literally exploded in the
> middle of a championship game!
>> No one else was hurt in the fatal explosion but four players and three
> officials at the Moscow Candidate Masters' Chess Championships were
> sprayed with blood and brain matter when Nikolai Titov's head suddenly
> blew apart. Experts say he suffered from a condition called
> Hyper-Cerebral Electrosis or HCE.
>> "He was deep in concentration with his eyes focused on the board,"
> says Titov's opponent, Vladimir Dobrynin. "All of a sudden his hands
> flew to his temples and he screamed in pain. Everyone looked up from
> their games, startled by the noise. Then, as if someone had put a
> bomb in his cranium, his head popped like a firecracker."
>> Incredibly, Titiov's is not the first case in which a person's head
> has spontaneously exploded. Five people are known to have died of HCE
> in the last 25 years. The most recent death occurred just three years
> ago in 1991, when European psychic Barbara Nicole's skull burst. Miss
> Nicole's story was reported by newspapers worldwide, including WWN
>> "HCE is an extremely rare physical imbalance," said Dr. Anatoly
> Martinenko, famed neurologist and expert on the human brain who did
> the autopsy on the brilliant chess expert. "It is a condition in
> which the circuits of the brain become overloaded by the body's own
> electricity. The explosions happen during periods of intense mental
> activity when lots of current is surging through the brain. Victims
> are highly intelligent people with great powers of concentration. Both
> Miss Nicole and Mr. Titov were intense people who tended to keep those
> cerebral circuits overloaded. In a way it could be said they were
> literally too smart for their own good."
>> Although Dr. Martinenko says there are probably many undiagnosed
> cases, he hastens to add that very few people will die from HCE.
> "Most people who have it will never know. At this point, medical
> science still doesn't know much about HCE. And since fatalities are
> so rare it will probably be years before research money becomes
> available."
>> In the meantime, the doctor urges people to take it easy and not think
> too hard for long periods of time. "Take frequent relaxation breaks
> when you're doing things that take lots of mental focus," he
> recommends.
>> (As a public service, WWN added a sidebar titled HOW TO TELL IF YOUR
> HEAD'S ABOUT TO BLOW UP:)
>> Although HCE is very rare, it can kill. Dr. Martinenko says knowing
> you have the condition can greatly improve your odds of surviving it.
> A "yes" answer to any three of the following seven questions could
> mean that you have HCE:
>> 1.Does your head sometimes ache when you think too hard? (Head pain
> an indicate overloaded brain circuits.)
>> 2.Do you ever hear a faint ringng or humming sound in your ears? (It
> could be the sound of electricity in the skull cavity.)
>> 3.Do you sometimes find yourself unable to get a thought out of your
> head? This is a possible sign of too much electrical activity in the
> cerebral cortex.)
>> 4.Do you spend more than five hours a day reading, balancing your
> checkbook, or other thoughtful activity? (A common symptom of HCE is a
> tendency to over-use the brain.)
>> 5.When you get angry or frustrated do you feel pressure in your
> temples? (Friends of people who died of HCE say the victims often
> complained of head pressure in times of strong emotion.)
>> 6.Do you ever overeat on ice cream, doughnuts and other sweets? (A
> craving for sugar is typical of people with too much electrical
> pressure in the cranium.)
>> 7.Do you tend to analyze yourself too much? (HCE sufferers are often
> introspective, "over-thinking" their lives.)
>> Jose Manoel C. P. Nunes
> e-mail: jmpnunes at matrix.com.br>http://www.matrix.com.br/jmpnunes/xadesczz.htm> Caixa Postal 3066, Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil, ZIP:
> 88010-970
>> ---------------- End of Forwarded Message --------------------------
>> Here are my two cents on HCE, which has got to be of greatest concern
> to all of us serious chess players.
>> Of course, I am shocked by the above report. It did not mention the
> *most* serious danger sign that you are at risk of HCE: spending more
> than five hours a day every day analyzing all 3,667,324,221
> significant variations, subvariations, and sub-subvariations of the
> Ruy Lopez?
>> By the way, for those of you that scoff at this story, did you know
> that the first well known victim of HCE was none other than Paul
> Morphy?
>> ==============================================
> JAMES W. REVAK - San Diego, CA - jrevak at cts.com> ==============================================
>> ===================================================
> JAMES W. REVAK - San Deigo, CA - jrevak at cts.com> ===================================================
ROFL... ken collins
