You probably already know that, in response to an Iranian cleric’s assertion that immodestly dressed women cause earthquakes, Jennifer McCreight, a Purdue University student, organized tens of thousands of women yesterday to bare or semi-bare their breasts at the same exact moment to see what would happen.
The Boobquake Facebook page announces the results.
Nada.
Still…
Obviously this study had its flaws. We didn’t have a large sample size, and we didn’t have a control planet where women were only wearing burkas. We didn’t have a good way to quantify how much we increased immodesty (what’s the unit of immodesty anyway? Intensity of red on blushing nuns?). Maybe women did dress immodestly, but we didn’t lead men astray enough. [The cleric says there’s a causal connection between inflamed men and plate tectonics.] Maybe God really was pissed, but he couldn’t increase earthquakes for us because that would provide proof for his existence (or maybe it’s his existence that’s the problem).
April 27th, 2010 at 11:58AM
Bad research, or at least incomplete. The mullah actually said that immodest dress increases forbidden sexual activity which *in turn* leads to earthquakes. So you can’t just stop with the skimpy clothing…As researchers always love to say, “more research is needed.”
Anyhow, Anne Applebaum has a friend who thinks that the recent volcano erruptions are a “judgment for the bad things we have done to the Earth.“
April 27th, 2010 at 12:00PM
Oh. Much less fun that way, david. But I guess you’re right.
April 27th, 2010 at 6:51PM
Hemingway was a muslim?
Maria: did the arth move?
Robert: yes it moved.
April 27th, 2010 at 7:02PM
Sheesh! Not only did I mis-spell earth, but I got the names backward. Let me try again.
Hemingway was a muslim?
Robert: did the earth move?
Maria: yes, it moved.
April 27th, 2010 at 8:03PM
Glenn Reynolds observes that licit as well as illicit sex *does* cause earthquakes, but only if it’s done right…
April 27th, 2010 at 8:36PM
Lincoln, david: Funny!
April 28th, 2010 at 12:46PM
If I may be permitted to proselytize for my own efforts, I offered some observations on this matter that suggest the esteemed cleric is a bit late in his observations:
http://friarsfires.blogspot.com/2010/04/and-earth-moved.html