Sunday, August 14, 2011

Die Laughing

When I said I wanted to die "Laughing" 
I didn't mean from Kuru...

11 November 1957; Vol. LXX No. 20



Kuru is an incurable degenerative disease of the central nervous system, caused by an infectious misfolded protein called prion, resulting in a lethal laughing sickness (violent pathological bursts of laughter). 

Kuru was first noted in the Fore tribe of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. It's now believed that this disease was transmitted via cannibalism. I can't help but wonder what other associated pathologies might be present in the properties of uncontrollable laughter. 

Fortunately, my laughter is under my conscious control...or is it? 









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