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I live in Hong Kong. I'm telling you, if someone made replicas of Darth Vader's helmet with a functional air filter built in (preferably with a speaker built in to simulate Vader's breath sounds ) they would sell like hotcakes

Uh... ok.

JodoForce wrote:I live in Hong Kong. I'm telling you, if someone made replicas of Darth Vader's helmet with a functional air filter built in (preferably with a speaker built in to simulate Vader's breath sounds ) they would sell like hotcakes

Right ... sounds like you need to go into business making Darth Vader masks...

What in the bloody hell does SARS stand for, and why would the thread title be a versus if the thread message has nothing of the sort?

Oh, right, whoever started this thread is an idiot.

SARS is the new disease sweeping through Asia and is starting to show up in Toronto and a few other places. I forget what the acronym stands for but it is apparently quite contagious and virulent, enough so that apparently the idea of halting all travel from southern asia into Canada is being seriously considered.

It's pretty scary; they've quarantined hundreds of people here already. But it should also be noted that most of the people who get it (some 80-90%) survive and recover. Some patients have already been sent home, perhaps with "I survived SARS" T-shirts. Maybe they'll start selling "My parents went to Hong Kong and all I got was this lousy SARS" T-shirts too.

DPDarkPrimus wrote:What in the bloody hell does SARS stand for, and why would the thread title be a versus if the thread message has nothing of the sort?

Oh, right, whoever started this thread is an idiot.

He's referring to the face masks worn by many people in affected areas. His idea is that if someone made a Vader mask, it would sell a lot. (Don't know if I agree there, it would look a little strange...)

Why in the world would someone buy one (1) Darth Vader mask for the cost of about a thousand (1000) of the regular masks, such as the ones you linked to? Especially since it seems that the masks don't really matter, since you can pick it up by touch as well.

So you can get sick in style.

Yup, well, I figured, if we had lots of SW fans like we have here they'd all snap it up
And we're starting to see some 'designer' masks too And I say, we look strange enough as it is

Might help the tourist industry that the govt is so worried about now too. Maybe they should start handing out full-face masks of various characters to everyone in HK. That would make this place look like a theme park instead of one big hospital room

IRG CommandoJoe wrote:So you can get sick in style.

Actually I think the point is to NOT get sick in style.

JodoForce wrote:Yup, well, I figured, if we had lots of SW fans like we have here they'd all snap it up
And we're starting to see some 'designer' masks too And I say, we look strange enough as it is

Might help the tourist industry that the govt is so worried about now too. Maybe they should start handing out full-face masks of various characters to everyone in HK. That would make this place look like a theme park instead of one big hospital room

Hasn't HK been quarantined by some countries? No flights to and from?

What they need are full-body Darth Vader NBC suits!

3rd Impact wrote:What they need are full-body Darth Vader NBC suits!

I'd settle for Clonetrooper armor. That's airtight, isn't it?

DPDarkPrimus wrote:

3rd Impact wrote:What they need are full-body Darth Vader NBC suits!

I'd settle for Clonetrooper armor. That's airtight, isn't it?

I want a Dark Trooper Mark 3.

Encounter suit, or space suit from 2001.

DPDarkPrimus wrote:What in the bloody hell does SARS stand for, and why would the thread title be a versus if the thread message has nothing of the sort?

Oh, right, whoever started this thread is an idiot.

Severe Acquired Respiratory Syndrome. It's a new pneumonia strain and so far Canadian, American, Chinese and British pathologists have found that it is being caused by multiple bacteria, that is, I don't think it's a virus as first thought. New Scientist says that this thing is basically getting other bugs to produce fatal pneumonia effects in humans and so far it has been fairly tame for an outbreak, but don't kid yourself, this thing could easily mutate and become highly resistant if it is a bacteria. If it is a virus, then God help us if it crosses with Avian Influenza, can anyone say Spanish Flu II?

I was informed of that already.

Not so uncommon in Asia for people to wear a facemask in the course of daily life. Many Koreans do it when they have a cold. I've also seen it in Japan.

XPViking

XPViking wrote:Not so uncommon in Asia for people to wear a facemask in the course of daily life. Many Koreans do it when they have a cold. I've also seen it in Japan.

XPViking

China as well.

Admiral Valdemar wrote:
Severe Acquired Respiratory Syndrome. It's a new pneumonia strain and so far Canadian, American, Chinese and British pathologists have found that it is being caused by multiple bacteria, that is, I don't think it's a virus as first thought. New Scientist says that this thing is basically getting other bugs to produce fatal pneumonia effects in humans and so far it has been fairly tame for an outbreak, but don't kid yourself, this thing could easily mutate and become highly resistant if it is a bacteria. If it is a virus, then God help us if it crosses with Avian Influenza, can anyone say Spanish Flu II?

So far its something like 1550 infected, around 54 dead. However supposedly it was first discovered months ago in southern china, but was covered up. So it can't be that bad, even if it is spreading fairly readily now that it's reached the international air flight networks.

This SARS thing had BEST not become well-known and long-lasting to the point of the very term being associated with disease and death, for one of my sci-fi's main charater's name is "Sars."

Never mind that HK is now called HKSAR...

'SAR'S bane', yeah

Sea Skimmer wrote:

Admiral Valdemar wrote:
Severe Acquired Respiratory Syndrome. It's a new pneumonia strain and so far Canadian, American, Chinese and British pathologists have found that it is being caused by multiple bacteria, that is, I don't think it's a virus as first thought. New Scientist says that this thing is basically getting other bugs to produce fatal pneumonia effects in humans and so far it has been fairly tame for an outbreak, but don't kid yourself, this thing could easily mutate and become highly resistant if it is a bacteria. If it is a virus, then God help us if it crosses with Avian Influenza, can anyone say Spanish Flu II?

So far its something like 1550 infected, around 54 dead. However supposedly it was first discovered months ago in southern china, but was covered up. So it can't be that bad, even if it is spreading fairly readily now that it's reached the international air flight networks.

Actually, official figures from global disease control centres have put the known cases figure at 450 infected, 17 deaths and around 14 countries with known cases so far (as of 25 March).

It is odd, it seems that it is a virus, or rather, viri. The American CDC has isolated a paramyxovirus subtype called human metapneumovirus, or hMPV. The university of Hong Kong has isolated a coronavirus which is a virus family known for mumps.

It would seem that we need two or more viruses to catalyse if you will the effects of infection. So far these viri have been grown but no known drugs have any effect and the virus isn't that infectious (close medical care has been the prime culprit for infection as hospital staff treat patients and probably get infected by aerosolized (exhaled) droplets of saliva etc.)

So far it isn't that much of a threat, but the WHO is concerned that this could change.