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Post by John Green on Dec 16, 2022 22:15:32 GMT
"Twenty-five years ago, at precisely 6.51pm on 16 December 1997, hundreds of children across Japan experienced seizures. In total, 685 – 310 boys and 375 girls – were taken by ambulance to hospital. Within two days, 12,000 children had reported symptoms of illness. The common factor in this sudden mass outbreak was an unlikely culprit: an episode of the Pokémon cartoon series....t is not only schoolchildren who are susceptible, however. On 31 October 1992, a Halloween broadcast caused mass panic across the UK. Ghostwatch adopted many of the tropes of Orson Welles’ The War of the Worlds – a radio drama that caused mass panic in the US when it aped a news report of a Martian invasion. Ghostwatch involved a supposedly live factual broadcast (actually recorded and scripted) of events as they took a terrifyingly sinister turn. Featuring familiar faces including Michael Parkinson, Sarah Greene, Mike Smith and Craig Charles, the programme purported to be an investigation into paranormal activity in a house in Northolt, west London." www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/dec/16/pokemon-explosion-tv-japan-children-hospital
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