Fun_People Archive
28 Feb
Weird Science

Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 19:39:46 PST
To: Fun_People
Subject: Weird Science

Forwarded-by: bostic@vangogh.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Keith Bostic)
From: WEIRDNUZ.314 (News of the Weird, February 11, 1994)
by Chuck Shepherd

* South Korea's Samsung Electronics Company announced in November that
it had invented "Bio Television"--a TV set that converts a television's
ordinary electromagnetic beams into waves that have an effect similar
to that of sunlight on nearby plants and animals.  In tests, the
longevity of fish, and the freshness of flowers, increased by from 50%
to 100% when they were near the Bio TV. [Fairfax Journal, 11-26-93]

* In the December Behavioral Neuroscience journal, researchers at
Rotterdam's Erasmus University reported that injecting a certain hormone
into young heterosexual male rats made them attempt to mate with males
each day at dusk but not at other times. [Bangkok Post-Reuter, Dec93]

* In December, Rory Thompson, 57, was granted a patent for a device that
permits viewers to see an ordinary color TV, or computer screen, in
three dimensions.  Thompson developed the device in Risdon Prison
Hospital in Hobart, Australia, where he has lived for ten years.  He
was declared insane following a 1984 conviction for killing his wife
and flushing parts of her body down a toilet. [Washington Post, 12-8-93]

* In January, several students in Keota, Okla., accused their industrial
arts teacher of forcing them to hold live wires as a way of learning
about electricity.  [Dallas Morning News, Jan94]

* The Bangkok Post reported in October that several charlatan physicians
had performed at least 100 bogus penis-enlargement operations recently
in Thailand.  The procedures involved injections containing a mixture
of olive oil, chalk, and various substances to provide bulk.  Said a
hospital official in the city of Chiang Mai, "I've even seen [victims'
penises containing] bits of the Bangkok telephone directory." [Medical
World News, December 1993]

* In December the Associated Press reported on research conducted by
Dr. James M. Dabbs, a psychology professor at Georgia State University,
to determine personality by examining hormones.  Dabbs prefers using
hormones found in saliva rather than in blood because it is easier to
get subjects to spit.   "Dr. Spit," as Dabbs is known, said he is a
pioneer in the field because other researchers might view working with
spit as "unseemly." [Quad City Times-AP, 12-26-93]

* Neurologist Dr. Angelika Hahn of the University of Western Ontario
told the Associated Press in November that a genetic cause has been
found for "startle disease," which makes victims overreact when
startled, even to the point of becoming stiff and falling over.  Because
victims are unable to break their falls, they are vulnerable to bone
fractures. [Houston Post-AP, 12-1-93]

* In July, research entomologist Gene Lamire of Naples, Fla., set up
the nation's first mosquito-trapping program that uses the tantalizing
fragrance of "cow's breath" as the lure.  Building on research from
Africa, Lamire installed 42 traps containing the synthetic chemical
Octenol, which mosquitos evidentally find irresistible.  Within the
first month, "millions" of mosquito carcasses were found in the traps.
[Post & Courier (Charleston, S. C.)-Knight-Ridder, 7-30-93]

* George Gibbs, 23, suffered second- and third-degree burns on his head
in Columbus, Ohio, in January.  He had diagnosed his car's problem as
a frozen fuel line, which he thought he could correct by running warm
gasoline through it.  He then tried to heat a two-gallon can of gasoline
on a gas stove. [Columbus Dispatch, Jan94]

Copyright 1994, Universal Press Syndicate.  All rights reserved.
Released for the personal use of readers.  No commercial use may
be made of the material or of the name News of the Weird.

© 1994 Peter Langston