Neatorama

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• 5 Horrific Urban Legends That Have Some Truth Behind Them
• Growing Old Goth
• The Bushman of San Francisco
• NYPD Blames Occupy Wall Street for a Jump in Gun Crimes
• Wedded Bliss
• Edible Spray Paint
• Cross Stitch Skillet
• Porsche Engine Cylinders Recycled as Wine Bottle Coolers
• Burger King in Japan Offers All-You-Can-Stuff-Down-Your-Throat Burgers for Half an Hour
• The Rich Gets Richer and The Poor Get a Little Bit Richer
• North Dakota: Where The Jobs Are
• The Ultimate Battlefield 3 Simulator
• Forget Bilingual Education, Here Comes Biliterate Education!
• Santo vs. Las Momias
• When Worlds Collide
• Superconductivity Is Very Cool
• Pumpkin Vampire Kitty
• Buried MiG-25 Foxbat Jet
• 60 Elvises Have Left the Building
• 60 Years of Teeth That Talk Back
• Craving Candy
• The Effect of Television on Sexual Behavior

5 Horrific Urban Legends That Have Some Truth Behind Them Posted: 27 Oct 2011 05:14 AM PDT From a hook being left on a door handle by a crazed serial killer to a gang that will shoot you if you flash your bright lights at them, Halloween is a ripe time for horrific urban legends to be spread around. While most of these are fiction, the reality is that some of these stories originate from real news stories and sometimes things that start out as urban legends eventually become real horror stories. Here are five terrifying tales with some scary truths behind them. Dead Bodies Under The Mattress This one involves someone checking into a hotel room and noticing that something smells rotten. Eventually, they realize it's coming from under the bed. So they move the mattress and discover a dead body. This story has been going around forever and has even been featured in movies like Four Rooms. It seems like this story is pretty unlikely, particularly given that you'd at least think a hotel maid would notice the smell of a rotting body before a hotel guest enters the room, but if you believe that, you're giving hotel staff too much credit. In fact, the most disturbing thing about this story is how often it actually happens. In 1982, a few auto thieves killed an accomplice and left him under the bed of their hotel in New Jersey. Four days later, someone discovered the corpse, but the room had been rented three different times in the meanwhile and no one noticed they were sleeping above a dead body. In 1987, a drug user overdosed and his high friend stuffed him under the bed and then ran away. Three days later, a family reported a nasty odor in their room, prompting the hotel staff to discover the body. In New York 1988, a murderer was clever enough to actually put the body inside the box spring. Even so, the smell still gave away the body's hiding place only a few days later. This time, at least two guests slept on top of the mattress, not knowing what was below. There are tons more stories like this. Apparently hotel workers often shrug off these types of odors and go on with their business until a guest complains or even refuses to stay in the room thanks to the smell. If there's anything to be learned here, it's that you should never stay in a hotel room with a funky smell. And, if you do notice something off, check under your bed or mattress…or you might not want to, that is, if you'd rather not know what's below. Source: Snopes Image Via neekatnite [Flickr] Spooky Acts Resulting In Death Whether it involves a trained escape artist failing in his act or a Halloween stunt that goes awry, this tale revolves around someone dying while an audience watches, often thinking it is all part of the act. Eventually, everyone is shocked when they learn the performer has really passed away. While it's a chilling story that has been told over and over, even used in an episode of Tales From The Crypt, it is far from fiction. In fact, it happens more often then you would think. In 1984, magician/comedian Tommy Cooper had a heart attack while performing on a variety show. Unfortunately, because one of the staples of his act was his inept magic skills that resulted in things going terribly wrong, everyone assumed it was part of the act until it was too late. October 1990 was a particularly bad month for these kinds of stunts. It started when teen Brian Jewell died while performing a hanging stunt meant to entertain guests on a haunted hayride. Only six days later, another teen, William Anthony Odom, died while performing a gallows scene at a Halloween party and the noose tightened around his neck, choking him to death. Days later, Joseph Burrus performed an act that involved him having to break free from a plastic coffin buried underground and covered in concrete. As spectators watched the concrete being poured into the hole, everyone noticed when the wet concrete level suddenly dropped two feet down –the coffin had been crushed. By the time they got Burrus out of the coffin, he was dead. In 2001, haunted hayride worker Caleb Rebh died when he decided to take the place of a skeleton placed in a noose on a tree. When he struggled with the rope, guests and fellow workers thought he was acting and left him alone until he suffocated. A good take away from these stories is to make sure your kids never think to do tricks that involve nooses. Also, don't raise your kid to be an escape artist. Sources: Snopes #1, #2 Image Via Sospitis [Flickr] Dead Bodies Mistaken For Spooky Decorations On a similar note, there have been many of occasions where someone thought something was a Halloween decoration, but it was really a dead body. Heck, this one even served as the basic plot for the Vincent Price classic House of Wax. In at least two cases, one in 2005 and one in 2009, a suicide victim has killed themselves in October and been left for hours, even days, because people mistook the real corpse for a Halloween decoration. One of the more interesting, slightly less gruesome stories in this vein involves the corpse of Elmer McCurdy. The outlaw was killed in a 1911 shoot-out. Afterwards, his undertaker went ahead and embalmed him, dressed him up, and started to charge locals $.05 to take a look at the bandit. Eventually, two men claimed McCurdy as their brother in 1915, but the men were actually carnival promoters who wanted the corpse for themselves. The body toured with his "brothers" for a few years and after a few stops at various other side shows it ended up in a Los Angeles wax museum, where those operating the attraction believed it was just another wax creation. It wasn't until the Six Million Dollar Man filmed at the wax museum and a worker accidentally broke off McCurdy's arm that people realized it wasn't just a creepy prop. Finally, in 1977, McCurdy was given a proper burial. To ensure he would stay buried, the medical examiner ordered that two yards of cement were laid over the body. Strangely, House of Wax was based on a Charles Belden's story The Wax Works written in 1933. Both of these were made long before any of these stories hit the news, so either earlier news stories like this are now buried or else this one was an urban legend that eventually came true rather than a true story that became an urban legend. Sources: Snopes #1, #2 Kidney Thieves Just about everyone has heard the story of the person waking up in a bathtub full of ice with a note telling them to go to a hospital if they want to live. While the bathtub of ice  and note parts may be fiction, this kind of this has been known to happen in India, where a 1995 law requires organ donations to come only from closely related family members, creating a thriving black market for organs. In 1998, three surgeons and seven accomplices were arrested after being accused of tricking people into having their kidneys removed without permission. The criminals would tell the impoverished victims they could get a good job, but first they had to undergo a medical exam. The exam would then reveal the "applicant" needed a small surgery. During the procedure, the doctor would remove one of the unconscious victim's kidneys and then the victim would hear nothing more about a job offer. In 2008, a similar racket was discovered by authorities. Like the wax museum stories, the interesting thing about these cases is the fact that the urban legend was around long before the true stories. In this case, the legend has been spread around since at least the eighties, but the problem in India did not start until after the 1995 law was passed. Sources: Snopes, Washington Post Image Via The Doctr [Flickr] Intentionally Infected With AIDS The most common version of this story involves a young girl dancing at a club when she feels a small prick on her arm or leg. Then she hears someone whisper "welcome to the wonderful world of AIDS," before they escape unseen. At her feet, she discovers a blood-filled needle and when she visits the hospital, they confirm that she now has HIV. Another version involves a girl going to the movies and discovering a note informing her of her new status before she leaves. The earliest version of this story has actually been traced back to the mid-80's, when a man sleeps with a woman he's only just met at a bar and then wakes up seeing the words "welcome to the world of AIDS" scrawled on the mirror in lipstick. While the story of an anonymous stranger injecting someone at a club and the "welcome to the world of AIDS" line are both urban legends, the truth is that there are many stories of people who have intentionally been given HIV. In 2006, a woman in England was arrested for intentionally having unprotected sex with men in an act of revenge after she became infected with the disease. Some people have even been intentionally injected with the virus, but not by random strangers like the victims in the legends. AIDS activist Brryan Jackson was infected as an 11 month-old baby by his father, who did not want to have to pay child support. By the time he was five, his infection was discovered and his father was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. Fortunately, the nineteen year-old activist is still doing fine despite his condition. Another person intentionally infected was Janice Trahan, who was given the virus, along with Hepatitis C, by her ex-lover Doctor Richard J. Schmidt who collected a samples from some of his patients and gave it to Trahan by claiming it was a vitamin B injection. Dr. Schmidt was charged with attempted murder and sentenced to 50 years. It is unknown how Trahan is doing because the case was so long ago and there are no follow up new stories on her since 2000. This case was the first of its kind to hit the court system and it eventually inspired a similar Law & Order episode. Sources: About.com, BBC, ABC News, Wikipedia Image Via cooling [Flickr] I know people always claim that urban legends are true and often claim that they know someone that was really involved with the story, but do any of you know any true urban legends that you can actually prove? Try to leave links to the news stories or other sources that prove your tale if you really want any of us to believe you.

Growing Old Goth Posted: 26 Oct 2011 08:02 PM PDT Most people grow out of their teenage lifestyles, but for some, growing up goth means growing old goth. Louise Tickle wrote a fascinating article over at The Guardian about how goths teens are more likely to grow up as goth adults, and still be productive members of society: Continuing with education and getting a decent job while staying involved isn't as hard for goths as it may be for those involved in other youth subcultures, some of which promote disengagement with school to the point that academic failure is all but inevitable. "It's a relatively middle-class subculture, so despite … all the going out and being into the music, goths have always had a fairly positive view of people who are also achieving academically." It means goths may have better career options than an outsider might expect. Succeeding in their chosen career had, Hodkinson observes, become increasingly important to those he interviewed as they moved into their late 20s and 30s, and he was surprised by how much participants in his study were willing to adapt their look to fit in at work. Link (Photo: Frank Baron/Guardian) - via Metafilter

The Bushman of San Francisco Posted: 26 Oct 2011 06:08 PM PDT (Video Link) David Johnson is a highly successful street performer ($60K per year) who hides behind a bush on busy sidewalks in San Francisco. When people walk by, he jumps out and surprises them. It works because they never suspect that a man is hiding behind that bush on the sidewalk. Link

NYPD Blames Occupy Wall Street for a Jump in Gun Crimes Posted: 26 Oct 2011 06:01 PM PDT Did Occupy Wall Street cause gun crimes to jump higher in New York City? That's what the NYPD is sayin': Four high-ranking cops point the finger at Occupy Wall Street protesters, saying their rallies pull special crime-fighting units away from the hot zones where they’re needed. Since Occupy Wall Street took over Zuccotti Park on Sept. 17, the NYPD has relied heavily on its borough task forces, the department’s go-to teams for rowdy crowds. But such protest duty takes the special units away from their regular jobs -- patrolling public housing and problem spots and staking out nightclubs plagued by violence, supervisors said. “Normally, the task force is used in high-crime neighborhoods where you have a lot of shootings and robberies,” said one source. “They are always used when there are spikes in crime as a quick fix. But instead of being sent to Jamaica, Brownsville and the South Bronx, they are in Wall Street.” Link (Photo: David Shankbone/Wikipedia)

Wedded Bliss Posted: 26 Oct 2011 05:53 PM PDT redditor shifty35 spotted this picture frame at a Target. Should I mention where? No, I really shouldn’t. -via reddit

Edible Spray Paint Posted: 26 Oct 2011 05:45 PM PDT You can spray a coat of gold (or silver, or red, or blue) on your food, and still eat it! Each can of this tasteless color coating will cost you €24,80, but hey, that covers shipping, too. Link -via Buzzfeed

Cross Stitch Skillet Posted: 26 Oct 2011 05:34 PM PDT To Lithuanian artist Severija Incirauskaite, everything is an appropriate target for her needle. She cross stitches images onto car doors, old shovels, watering cans, and more. She’d probably stitch a pattern on to you if you’d hold still long enough. You can view other works by her and read an interview at the link. Link -via Colossal | Photo: Don’t Panic

Porsche Engine Cylinders Recycled as Wine Bottle Coolers Posted: 26 Oct 2011 05:25 PM PDT Sports car maker Porsche offers wine bottle chillers that are taken out of old 911 G-series air-cooled engines. Can you find one from a ‘73 Vega? No, which is a pity, because nothing cools like an aluminum engine block. Link -via Tasteologie | Photo: Porsche

Burger King in Japan Offers All-You-Can-Stuff-Down-Your-Throat Burgers for Half an Hour Posted: 26 Oct 2011 05:18 PM PDT Faster, faster! We’re at the 24-minute mark! Don’t stop; you can breathe later! If you order a Whopper set meal, you can order as many extra Whoppers as you can eat within a 30-minute period The Whopper is Burger King's symbol all over the world. Burger King ran this campaign last year as well, and said it was a success, even though it might be likened to a speed-eating contest in the hands of some gluttonous customers. Link -via Ace of Spades HQ | Photo: Flickr user shinya

The Rich Gets Richer and The Poor Get a Little Bit Richer Posted: 26 Oct 2011 04:00 PM PDT The rich get richer and the poor get poorer seems to be the proverb of the times, but just exactly how much richer did the rich get in the past 30 years? According to a newly released report on real (inflation-adjusted) average household income in the United States by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the answer is almost three times as rich: For the 1 percent of the population with the highest income, average real after-tax household income grew by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007 (see Summary Figure 1). The Top One-percenters also have the lionshare of the growth of total market income: As a result of that uneven growth, the share of total market income received by the top 1 percent of the population more than doubled between 1979 and 2007, growing from about 10 percent to more than 20 percent. Without that growth at the top of the distribution, income inequality still would have increased, but not by nearly as much. The precise reasons for the rapid growth in income at the top are not well understood, though researchers have offered several potential rationales, including technical innovations that have changed the labor market for superstars (such as actors, athletes, and musicians), changes in the governance and structure of executive compensation, increases in firms’ size and complexity, and the increasing scale of financial-sector activities. But is bemoaning the good fortunes of the super-rich the right thing to do? After all, the second part of the proverb "the poor get poorer" is actually incorrect: for the bottom 20% of the population, the average real after-tax household income increased by 18% over the past three decades. It seems like the poor also got a little bit richer. Perhaps we should change the proverb to "the rich get richer and the poor get a little bit richer"? Source: Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007 [PDF] by the Congressional Budget Office - via The New York Times

North Dakota: Where The Jobs Are Posted: 26 Oct 2011 02:59 PM PDT Psst! Wanna job? There's a place in the United States that actually can't get enough people to hire. The catch? You have to live in North Dakota ... kidding! Actually its a bit worse: you have to live in camps in North Dakota ;) Perhaps the state didn't get the memo that we're in the middle of the Great Recession, or that the country is neck-deep in unemployment, but thanks to its oil fields, North Dakota is flush with cash and booming with jobs. School-bus driver Barb Russell heard good money could be made in the oil fields of North Dakota, so she packed a bag, locked her Farmington, Minn., home and headed west last month. She tripled her income. She rose every morning at 3 o'clock in September to bus Halliburton workers to drilling rigs in a place where trucks roar nonstop and everybody who wants a job has one. Finding somewhere to lay your head is another matter. Russell, 60, lives in one of many dormitory-style "man camps" that help house an influx of an estimated 35,000 workers. "I wish 'em the best on getting housing for everybody, especially with winter coming," said Russell, who in her pink cap stands out among the men. "I'd hate to see people sleeping in their cars." There's no other place like it in America. Link

The Ultimate Battlefield 3 Simulator Posted: 26 Oct 2011 01:55 PM PDT (YouTube Link) The British television show The Gadget Show has created a simulator for Battlefield 3 that will appeal to those who feel the game isn’t realistic enough. Featuring a treadmill floor, projection screens and a motion controlled gun that looks kind of cheesy but doesn’t seem to detract from the tester’s enjoyment of this unique gaming experience. I don’t know about you, but I want one! –via Joystiq

Forget Bilingual Education, Here Comes Biliterate Education! Posted: 26 Oct 2011 12:58 PM PDT Bilingual education is the third rail of public education politics. On one hand, proponents argue that kids should learn in whatever language is most accessible to them. On the other, English-only advocates argue that children won't learn to speak English properly unless they're forced to do so. Enter into this fray another method: biliterate education. But before you get to your respective high horses, read this article by Claudio Sanchez over at NPR about one such bilingual school in Miami, Florida: "When parents come to Coral Way, they already know what they're buying into," Otero says. "We have proven that our methods here at Coral Way do work, and that our students are successful and prepared to face the challenges ahead of them." Most of the 1,500 students at the school are low-income, but their test scores are among the highest in the city. After eighth grade, many go on to Miami's top private and public high schools. Some take up a third and fourth language. For parents like Allen Miller, Spanish is academic enrichment — just as important as being well-read and talented at math. "We're an English-speaking household," Miller says. "Our son now is becoming fluent in Spanish. He loves it, and that's a skill he would not get normally in a traditional school system." There are about 440 public bilingual immersion schools across the country, up from only a handful in the 1970s. A growing number today teach Mandarin and French, not just Spanish. But in some states — California, Arizona, Colorado and Massachusetts — bilingual immersion programs are banned because a majority of voters don't think children can learn proper English and hold on to a foreign language and culture at the same time. It's an issue that gets caught up in the angry debate over illegal immigration, especially from Spanish-speaking countries. Even in Miami, when Rosa de La O tells people her kids attend a bilingual school, some always ask, "Are we loyal? Are we not? Is a child is going to absorb that?" she says. Link (Photo: Claudio Sanchez/NPR)

Santo vs. Las Momias Posted: 26 Oct 2011 12:16 PM PDT Until about fifty years ago, the town of Guanajuato, Mexico, had a grave tax. If you didn’t pay, your loved ones were dug up and displayed in a museum! The climate is very arid, so the disinterred were already mummies. In fact, the museum and the mummies are still there. But that’s not the most bizarre part of this story. Santo or “the Saint” is “one of the most famous and iconic of all Mexican luchadores” Over his life he produced numerous B-Horror/Action films for Mexican cinemas. In 1972 he may have made his greatest film ever. Co-starring Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras, the plot is fairly straight forward. The wrestlers stop in Guanajuato and all the mummies come alive to attack them. Obviously. (There is a motive. Something about one of the mummies avenging his defeat by Santo’s grandfather… or something…) The film proved to Santo’s most successful, and the mummies even got their own series, starring in such films as Robbery Of The Mummies and Castle Of The Mummies. Atlas Obscura has clips from the movie, in which the real mummies appear, but they do not perform in action sequences -they have real live stunt doubles for that. Link

When Worlds Collide Posted: 26 Oct 2011 11:37 AM PDT When Worlds Collide – $14.95 Ding dong! The witch is dead! Wait! What? That’s not right. Dorothy didn’t arrive in a spinning TARDIS. The NeatoShop is happy to bring you another of artist Mike Jacobsen’s fabulous drawings. The When Worlds Collide art is available on both t-shirts and sweatshirts. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for fantastic Wizard of Oz and Doctor Who items! Link

Superconductivity Is Very Cool Posted: 26 Oct 2011 11:10 AM PDT (YouTube link) On the 100th anniversary of the discovery of superconductivity, researchers at Tel Aviv University demonstrate how a superconductor will float in a locked position above a magnetized track. The puck of superconducting material is able to stay locked in the air above the magnets because one of the properties of superconductivity is that that it is impervious to magnetic fields. The puck repels the magnetic field with greater force than the pull of gravity so it hangs in mid air… Via Physics Buzz. Addendum:  The technology has now been applied to a skateboard.

Pumpkin Vampire Kitty Posted: 26 Oct 2011 08:08 AM PDT (YouTube link) No, I don't want to wear a pumpkin on my head. No. Never. What? What's that? You'll let me eat chicken if I wear it? Hmm… What? You'll hand feed it to me? As much as I want? Gimme that pumpkin hat! This cat is named Jumbo Pillow. Isn’t that perfect? The food is boiled chicken dipped in pumpkin. (via Cynical-C)

Buried MiG-25 Foxbat Jet Posted: 26 Oct 2011 07:40 AM PDT While searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, US Forces found some pretty interesting things in the desert, like this MiG-25 Foxbat interceptor. It was hidden underground with its wings removed. Military personnel dug it up by hand in 2003 and transported the jet to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio for examination. Eventually, it will go on display to the public. Read the story of this reclamation project, and see more pictures at Urban Ghosts. Link

60 Elvises Have Left the Building Posted: 26 Oct 2011 07:36 AM PDT An Elvis tribute at the Holiday Inn in Rochester, Kent, England was held Saturday night to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support. An unplanned event was added when a malfunctioning smoke machine set off a fire alarm, and the building was evacuated. Guests leaving the hotel were stunned to see a group of around 60 impersonators, dressed in wigs and full rhinestone costume, gathered in the car park. “I was in a bit of a state getting out of my room,” one guest told the Daily Mirror. “But I was more confused when I got outside to see all these people dressed as Elvis. “There were people in full Elvis jumpsuits and wigs standing by a roundabout, looking a bit worse for the wear.” About 250 people attended the event. Link -via Arbroath (Unrelated image credit: Flickr user adm)

60 Years of Teeth That Talk Back Posted: 26 Oct 2011 07:26 AM PDT Those funny false teeth that move on their own -it seems like they’ve been around forever. But they were the invention of Eddie Goldfarb in the 1940s. They were called Yakity-Yak Talking Teeth. Collector’s Weekly has everything you ever needed to know about chattering teeth, from their inspiration, how they work, and how they became a hit. Link -Thanks, Ben!

Craving Candy Posted: 26 Oct 2011 07:23 AM PDT Admit it, you’ve experienced this scenario yourself at one time or another, haven’t you? From the webcomic Loading Artist by Gregor Czaykowski. Link -via The Daily What

The Effect of Television on Sexual Behavior Posted: 26 Oct 2011 05:08 AM PDT Figure 1. A page from the survey form that was given to male participants. by Jennifer A. Zimmerman Psychology Department Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York This study investigates what effect, if any, watching television has on people's sexual behavior. The Population Problem For populous countries such as China and India, population growth is seen as a major and vexing problem. The governments of these nations worry that soon there will be more people than the land can support. The Chinese Crisis Chinese officials are developing elaborate, expensive plans for more effective family planning, including the development and delivery of better birth-control services. The Chinese State Family Planning Commission recently announced a series of new scientific and technological projects for the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2001-2005). These include the production of 15 new contraceptives and abortificant medicines. The technologies under consideration in China have serious drawbacks. They are costly, and are likely to be implemented inefficiently. It could take many years — perhaps decades — before their intended effects reached a satisfactory, or even noticeable level. Some different, better method is sorely wanted. The Indian Innovation This past year, an official in India proposed that televisions be given to the nation's citizens, because televisions are an effective form of birth control. The official explained that people would rather watch television than engage in sexual intercourse: In a mark of frustration over India's perennially stalled family planning efforts, the country's health minister has come up with a somewhat Orwellian proposal: distribute telvisino sets to the masses to keep their minds off procreation…. Chandreshwar Prasad Thakur suggested last month to the Indian parliament that “entertainment is an important component of the population policy.” To drive down birth rates, he said, “we want people to watch television.” Population experts, meanwhile, say the minister's proposal betrays the false assumption that India's poor breed merely because they have nothing better to do. [Science, vol. 293, September 14, 2001, p. 1987.] Perhaps for political reasons, the proposal was received with skepticism. To Test the Television Theory Is television-watching in fact an effective method for preventing sexual intercourse? If so, there are phenomenal implications for family planning. Prior research strongly suggests that sexual intercourse is a cause of pregnancy. Therefore, if television prevents people from engaging in sexual intercourse, it might also prevent pregnancy. Furthermore, a decrease in the number of pregnancies might produce a lower birth rate. With that in mind, this study set out to determine whether television-watching is an effective form of birth control. Methods The study consists of two parts — a review of the literature on population, fertility rate, and television use; and a survey. The study concentrates on North America, because that is the region in which television use is most widespread among a large population. If television-watching does prevent sexual intercourse, the effect should be most easily discerned in North America. The survey consisted of eight questions. Each question involved a choice between two activities, where each activity was illustrated with a picture. Thus each question involved looking at a pair of photographs. Figure 2. A page from the survey form that was given to female participants. Female participants were shown photographs of males. Male participants were shown photographs of females. For each pair of pictures, the participant was asked to choose between two options: <> Engage in sexual intercourse with the individual in picture A; or <> Watch individual B on television. Figure 1 shows a page from the survey form that was given to female participants. Figure 2 shows a page from the survey form that was given to male participants. Participants/Procedure The subjects who took this study were college students in a physiological psychology course and a psychology-capping course at a liberal arts college in upstate New York. The sample group consisted of 35 individuals: 30 females and five males. Their ages ranged from 18 years to 22 years. Beforehand, a prospectus for the study was submitted to the college's Institutional Review Board (IRB), where it received approval. The surveys were administered in a classroom setting. Subjects were asked to answer the questions honestly, and were told that all answers would remain anonymous. The surveys were collected after everyone was finished answering all of the questions. Results, Part 1: Analysis of Historical Data Figure 3. Number of television sets in use in North America An analysis of several decades' worth of statistical data concerning (a) the number of television sets in use in North America and (b) the birth rate in the United States reveals a simple relationship. As the number of television sets increases, the birth rate decreases. This is shown in Figures 3 and 4. In the period since televisions were introduced into the American home, the average number of individuals per household has steadily decreased. In 1940, before television was available, 7.1 percent of households consisted of one person, and 9.3 percent consisted of seven persons. In 1940, these two types of households comprised nearly equal percentages of the total number of households. By 1950, 10.9 percent of households had one person, while only 4.9 percent had seven persons. By 1990, the percent of one-person households had increased to 24.5, while only 1.2 percent of households had seven persons living in them. This data is represented in Figure 5. During the entire period, the national birth rate was decreasing. Based on this information, one can conclude that as television-watching increases, the birth rate decreases. Results, Part 2: The Survey Results Figure 4. Birth rates in the United States. The survey was designed to test a hypothesis — that individuals would rather watch members of the opposite sex on television than to engage in sexual intercourse with them. The survey results were impressively clearcut. All 35 subjects reported that they would rather watch the opposite sex on television than engage in sexual intercourse with them. In making an aggregate 240 choices, not one participant preferred sexual intercourse to watching television. The test was re-administered four weeks later. This was done to investigate the re-test reliability for this instrument. There were 23 students in this new sample — 21 females and two males. Here too, all participants specified that they would prefer to watch members of the opposite sex on television than to engage in sexual intercourse with them. Discussion Figure 5. Percentage of all households that have 1 Person, 2 Persons, 3 Persons, etc. As mentioned above, statistical analysis indicates that as the number of television sets increases, the birth rate decreases. In light of our survey results, this otherwise perplexing fact now makes sense. When people have access to a television set, they would rather watch television than engage in sexual intercourse. Also as noted above, if individuals are not engaging in sexual intercourse, then they are less likely to get pregnant (this is especially true of females), and this in turn is likely to effect a decrease in the birth rate. Conclusion Television is an effective method of birth control. If the Chinese and Indian governments supplied televisions to every household, each country would see a dramatic drop in its birth rate. References “China to Make Population, Family Planning Law,” (article dated October, 2001). Available at http://www.cpirc.org.cn/e-policy5.htm “Population, Top Challenge in China's Western Development,” (article dated October, 2001). Available at http://www.cpirc.org.cn/enview1.htm “SFPC Identifies Key Projects for Tenth Five-Year Plan (2001-2005),” (article dated October, 2001). Available at http://www.sfpc.gov.cn/en/enews20011017-3.htm _____________________ This article is republished with permission from the March-April 2002 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift! Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.

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