Alien Hand Syndrome

Alien Hand Syndrome
by Alan Bellows

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Book Summary Information

Author: Alan Bellows
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2009-07-10
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company

Book Reviews of Alien Hand Syndrome

Book Review: Interesting Stuff
Summary: 4 Stars

Here's a bunch of short articles "based on truth" from history, science and medicine. Other reviewers have described this book adequately, but I have a few impressions of my own to add.

First of all - even though I bought the book, I still wonder at the sense of paying for a print version of stories one could read for free online. Readers will have to gauge for themselves the value of a hard copy.

Secondly - the writing style here is intended to entertain as much as to inform, perhaps more so. The stories are interesting, amazing, exciting, and bizarrely funny (I got a lot of uncomfortable laughs out of them) but I get the sense that factual accuracy has taken a back seat to jaw-dropping hyperbole. Some of these articles are written with a two-fisted enthusiasm which makes my Urban Legend senses tingle. But it is fun reading, and true to the website's name it's Damn Interesting.

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Summary of Alien Hand Syndrome

Welcome to the five stages of reading Alien Hand Syndrome: Astonishment: This is amazing! Insecurity: I?m a smart person? how could I never have heard of this before? Panic: Please, don't let it end. Gratitude: Great!?and look, there are over 90 more essays where that one came from. And Zeal: You won't believe what I just read.

Collected and curated by Alan Bellows and his team at DamnInteresting.com, with over 400,000 unique visitors a month, this is the stuff nightmares are made of, and no one will be able to stop reading: Giant Carnivorous Centipedes; Mike, the Headless Chicken; The Exploding Lakes of Cameroon; The Swirling Vortex of Doom; Secret Agent Cyborg Cats; Fiery Balls of Naga; The Deepest Hole; The Terrifying Toothpick Fish; and, of course, Alien Hand Syndrome?a disorder wherein a person's hand develops a "will of its own," unbuttoning shirts, grabbing at the steering wheel, tossing away cigarettes, and in some cases actually attacking its host.

Most entries are full-blown narratives, complete with illustrations?for example, pointing out step-by-step how "The Halifax Disaster" unfolded. Other entries examine short-take anomalies?such as unusual drug side effects, including the antidepressant Clomipramine (spontaneous orgasm upon yawning), the hormone Oxytocin (increases one's generosity), the medicine for Parkinson's disease, Ropinirole (compulsive gambling), and Viagra (priapus syndrome, with a remote chance of gangrene curable only through penectomy?say no more).

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