Extreme technophobia: Pop popcorn with cell phones
With all the talk of
cell phone dangers, the idea of radiation from them being
powerful enough to pop popcorn doesn't seem that far-fetched, at least on the surface. Why, just this summer the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute
advised its employees to limit exposure to electromagnetic radiation from cell phones. So why wouldn't you believe the swarm of e-mail telling you to look at the incredible video of friends popping kernels of corn with their mobile phones?
The group allegedly did it by placing the kernels inside a ring of cell phones that then rang at the same time. The result: The kernels popped wildly as the cell phone owners shrieked in delight. It must be true -- it was on the Internet, and the video was fun to watch. The event set off a wave of imitators attempting to film themselves re-creating it or trying to disprove it. The best of these, in our opinion, was the video where the people
replaced their cell phones with Barack Obama dolls and the popcorn popped anyhow. Watch out, Senator McCain!
Unfortunately, as you might expect, it was all fake. A company called
Cardo Systems made the video to promote its cell phone headsets. Abraham Glezerman, Cardo's CEO,
told CNN that the phones were real and the popping popcorn was real, but the video was a composite, with the footage of the popcorn heated over a kitchen stove digitally dropped into the video of the folks with their phones. Dang. Guess the
e-mail about cell phones that can cook eggs isn't accurate either.
