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Comment by zafirk | Hacker News Reader

between this and the article about brain parasites in california, HN is scaring the crap out of me

This is a fundamental problem with our always-on, 24 hour news, headline-based world. Unfortunately, it tends to breed fear, hopelessness and apathy as people feel overwhelmed about too many problems they can't control.

Not sure what to do about it, though. Get outside and disconnected more, I suppose. :)

Bonus: getting outside gets you away from your carcinogenic couch.

Not me. For one thing, keep in mind these people are selling page views. If the headline was "Odds of being diagnosed with brain parasite at .00061%", would you even bother reading the story? Dividing things out is a big anxiety stopper.

And think about it when you see something like "...100% increase in your risk of brain cancer," since it represents the doubling of a very small number. Taking percentages of percentages is a sneaky way to make things look more important than they really are.

I don't know which article you're referencing, but we also had brain parasites found in a man who died about 50 miles from me in Indiana. We've basically been told to avoid freshwater lakes and rivers for now.

Those freshwater incidents sound like protozoa (amoeba) infections with an high mortality rate ("Brain-eating amoeba suspected in Indiana death"). GP is referring to another hazard, also seems to be from nasty water. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4492244. Don't say you weren't warned though !

Minnesota also had a confirmed case about a month and half ago as well.

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