Warning, warning-- head explosions!

["Natalie D. Yarwood" <yarwoond@whitman.edu>]

> How To Tell If Yout Head's About To Blow Up
> 
> From the 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.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> 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 can indicate overloaded brain circuits.)
>   2.  Do you ever hear a faint ringing 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.)
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Important Related Material
> 
>    * Matthew's homepage.
>    * Matthew and Jake's Adventures
>      ---------------------------------------------------------------
>    * Your head might explode. The web already has.
>    * More web servers than you know what to do with

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