psychoceramics: Japanese cartoon triggers seizures

["T.L. Kelly" <r--@t--.com>]

Japanese cartoon triggers seizures in hundreds of children.

http://cnn.com/WORLD/9712/17/video.seizures.update/index.html

        TV Tokyo declined to comment on what part of the cartoon caused
the seizures, but most of the children developed the symptoms about 20
minutes into the program.

News reports blamed a scene in the cartoon that featured an exploding
"vaccine bomb" set off to destroy a computer virus, followed by five
seconds of flashing red light in the eyes of "Pikachu," a rat-like
creature that is the show's most popular character.

Some other children were stricken later, when watching excerpts from the
scene in TV news reports on the earlier victims.