f13.net

Found this off of Digg:


Not only does this sound totally unbelievable, but I couldn't believe I haven't heard about it before.  Apparently:


I mean hell this was printed in the Korean Herald:


Am I alone in my ignorance of this urban myth?  It's utterly fascinating to me.

Linkie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death)

(http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/879/relpievi9.png)

I believe it.

I'm thinking Mythbusters could probably prove "fan-death" doesn't exist. Moron.

Well, that explains why both of the fans I've bought in Korea have stupid timers on them.

Schild has demonstrated what I had wondered for years:  That pac man does believe in god. 

I am in an enclosed office in Korea at the moment.  Just realised why there is an oxygen generating machine in the office.

Ha.  Never seen it anywhere else.

Do you think that cats could be sneaking into rooms at night and using the fans to suck the breath out of people bigger than infants?

I don't believe in all that urban myth nonsense either.  I'm sure it must have been cats.

Some should fill a room with electric fans and just video tape himself sleeping for like 12 hours. Maybe video cameras negate this.

Exactly what is the thinking here? Fans consume oxygen? Fans create noxious gasses? Movement of air in confined areas creates violent urges to kill?

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

I think it's more like God is Pacman.  Those who believe in Him become part of Him.  Those who don't get chewed up.

Edit: Why is this stickied?

Cause Ookii has the power to do that?

I've slept with fans on all night since I was 3 years old.  As a matter of fact I can't sleep without one.  This must mean I am immortal, people should start to fear me.  Look out world, no fan can stop me now!

My friend has just spent 30 minutes trying to justify her belief to us.

It's pretty much an irrational fear at this point. We tried to nail it down. It alternates between "very hot days people just pass out maybe it's evaporation caused from the fan" to "well when I'm in a breeze for a while even if it's 90 degrees I get chilled to the bone". She had it instilled in her growing up, had ac in every room so she wasn't affected directly, but the fear is still there.

We all think she's loony. Well, more loony than before. Krazy Koreans.

Now she's all pissy.

I just realized that all it would take is a single CSI episode where someone died this way and 60% of the US would become converts to the Fan Death theory.

Yep, just like plants!

Damned if I can remember who, but I came across someone a few months ago who still believed that plants had to be placed outside of sleeping rooms lest they suck-up all the oxygen.

Fuck, plenty of people in the US still believe you can't get pregnant her first time having sex, or that a woman on top eliminates the chance "cuz of gravity!"  We've got bucketloads of stupid to go around, too.

Well, here you have some silly things that women believe.  What are some silly things that men believe.  Umm... that they're in charge?   :lol:

Wasn't me, I mean it's not THAT good of a thread.  Twas schild.

Let's see: that we can find our way around without directions, that we can accurately predict sports outcomes before they happen, that every woman would be into us if they spent enough time around us, that an all-you-can-eat buffet is a challenge to your manhood, and that it's not cheating if you're in different zip codes.

You forgot directions are for pussies, Paelos.

It's not just women I've heard spouting that other nonsense tho, Signe, but how about tacking "Men are all easily-lead morons" onto that side.

I'm easily led by my nether regions.

Stop agreeing with me.  I am trying to inspire controversy!

No you're not.

Signe, I am easily led by petite girls with cute haircuts.

So on the way to Inchon airport, in a van full of Korean engineers, I brought up this subject. 

They all had heard of fan death but none of them could explain how it was possible...

Need to find new engineers.

Why, because the old ones all died mysteriously overnight?


Ha ha, oooh...

Ah, I miss Korea...

I think.  Maybe.  Hmmm.  Perhaps just the food and certain parts of Seoul.

I just now realized that schild's pacman chart is wrong.  The yellow part of the pie is labelled as being half theistic, so that half of it should be part of the pacman.

SHENANIGANS!

It's a well known fact that Pac-man was nihilist.

Just the most awesome avatar.

I aims to please.   :-D  Sometimes I even succeed.

Ceiling fans don't count, right?  And the suction fan in the bathroom, right?  God, I've left the master bath door open with it on and the ceiling fan in the bedroom while we sleep before.  Am I dicing with death?

I still think these things are bollocks and it's much more likely that cats are sneaking in and sucking the life out of sleeping Koreans.  It's really the only logical explanation.

My guess is that a coroner in Seoul was trying to not dishonour a recently deceased person's family with the fact that they died choking on their own vomit after overdosing on soju...  and from there, the myth began.

What, no one here has ever gotten a cold from sleeping in a draft before?

I'm sure pretty much everyone has heard a version of 'don't sleep in a draft, you'll catch your death'. It could be the same thing except the Koreans have a fan woven into their version.

There is all kinds of shit blowing around in the air (http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20030802/bob8.asp). You don't think if you're sleeping where there is a draft that particles of dust and diseases like Valley Fever or TB have a chance of blowing into your mouth and nose? Raise your hand if you think sleeping in a draft with your mouth open during the plague in Europe was a good idea.

Here's some old book I found that talks about preventing disease in factories (http://books.google.com/books?id=TTlq4jfPhgQC&pg=PA9&dq=drafty+windows+disease+factory) by not having your workers work in a draft.

No, not that I am aware of.  And if it was cold why would I have a fan on?   :?  I sleep with a fan on when it's too goddamn hot to sleep without a fan on.  I don't think I'm liable to die of hypothermia or whatever under those conditions.

Fans make the room warmer, people. They simply create a windchill effect in the room by causing sweat to evaporate easier off your skin, thus making it easier to eliminate your body heat. Most cases of hypothermia happen because the weather is cold. If you were going to die of hypothermia, the room would have to be cold enough to kill you without the fan on and completely soaked to the bone and loaded on drugs.

Yes, the easy availability of drugs and the complete lack of credible porn in Korea are probably the root, cough, cause of these deaths.

I asked a buddy who met and married his wife in Korea. They actually had this discussion, quite seriously, over the use of fans.

It's hard to take a nation seriously when you find out that they are afraid of a device that MOVES AIR.

I can see the Korean emergency alert system announce that "there are wind speeds clocked at 10 mph, so stay inside and play Starcraft!".

The real reason the Koreans spend so much time online............. Wind Fear!

Is this a relatively recent thing?  I lived in Seoul for 4 1/2 years and never heard of this rumor.

I also ran the fans non-stop day and night all summer, just like everyone else I knew.  Because the apartments had zero fucking air conditioning.

If I sleep with air of any kind blowing directly on my face, whether from the AC vent, ceiling fan or electric fan, I will wake up with one nostril completely blocked as if phlegm gnomes had built a nasal bypass during my REM periods. As a result, I tend to sleep with my head entirely under the covers.

I've never died though, at least not that I know of.

 :vv:   ?

My wife is the same way, which means I get to sleep in a stuffy room while she dozes peacefully.

I thirst for knowledge. I'm not sure if that translates into an insatiable desire to sup brains.

Well, you weren't sure if you had died.  Just being careful.