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How Not To Cook An Egg With A Phone (But Still Create A Viral Hoax Sensation)

Overhype

from the the-madness-of-blogs dept

Tue, Feb 7th 2006 6:20pm — Mike Masnick
David Goldenberg writes "Over the past week, Slashdot, BoingBoing, Digg, and many others have posted a link to a article detailing how to cook an egg using two mobile phones. This story is a hoax. Over at Gelf Magazine, I talked with the article's author, who told me he never expected so many people would take it seriously. It's also a testament to the cyclical power of the internet: He wrote the piece six years ago. Here's a snip: "No other page on the site has grabbed people's attention and ire button as much as this one. What seems to be happening is that it 'travels' from blog to blog, forum to forum. It was big in Australia last year and seems to be big in the US right now." According to Ivermee, the article got almost 50,000 hits during one week in September last year and last week got 18,500 hits. That number is sure to rise even more this week. Why did he write the piece? "It was 6 years ago but I seem to recall that there was a lot of concern about people's brains getting fried and being from a radio/electronics background I found it all rather silly," he writes. "So I thought I'd add to the silliness." "
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31 Comments

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  • identicon
    Roachmill, 7 Feb 2006 @ 7:13pm

    No Subject Given

    I saw that artical like 6 months ago

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Gunblade, 7 Feb 2006 @ 7:14pm

    No Subject Given

    Wow...when I first read it I think at Engadget I knew it was BS. But didn't comment because I thought all the comments would be like that.

    I read the blurb on the article and then looked at my cellphone thought about some common sense things and said to myself "No freaking way" and moved on.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    ?, 7 Feb 2006 @ 7:52pm

    humph!

    No wonder my breakfast isn't cooking. Two hours into it, and all I have is a stinky egg.

    Good thing for Verizon's "IN" program, or I would have a huge fat bill too!

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2006 @ 8:09pm

      Re: humph!

      Can you hear me now? I can't hear anything. There is egg in my phone...

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      RedSun, 7 Feb 2006 @ 8:43pm

      Re: humph!

      I tried it, after I read about it on slashdot. It didn't work, so I cried. :(

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    nonuser, 7 Feb 2006 @ 8:47pm

    Ron Popeil

    I'd like to see Ron Popeil do an infomercial for a phone, covering all the usual features like web browsing and text messaging and then concluding with the egg frying demo ("John, you also have the new Motorola and I need to borrow yours.").

    I bet that would sell a lot of phones.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Amy, 7 Feb 2006 @ 9:02pm

    brainiac

    This was actually tested on the show Brainiacs on G4 (the "I can do science me!" segment of the show), except they used 100 cell phones and basically burried the egg in them. that didn't work either.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Sohrab, 7 Feb 2006 @ 9:29pm

    No Subject Given

    hahaha wow. Got to love the internet

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    drinkmorejava, 7 Feb 2006 @ 9:48pm

    LOL slashdot

    I was reading that a day or two ago on /. and was like wtf, how on earth did the mods ever let something that stupid get on the front page. Then I realized that 90% of the stuff posted there is crap anyway.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2006 @ 2:39am

    No Subject Given

    oooooooooooooooooooooooooold

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Idiot, 8 Feb 2006 @ 2:57am

      Re: No Subject Given

      I debunk bogus emails for fun.

      I fell for this.

      IDIOT!!

      I blame my mobile phone for frying my brain.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    reddy kilowatt, 8 Feb 2006 @ 3:48am

    No Subject Given

    Don't you just love how the same people that freak at such things because they don't know anything about electronics or electricity are the same ones who try to drive and talk on cellphones at the same time, put scotch tape over wall sockets to prevent leakage, and stick their fingers in light sockets to see if the juice is on? And they're allowed to vote!

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    MacOso, 8 Feb 2006 @ 4:25am

    need MO power

    ..I knew this couldn't work... we tried to pop some microwave popcorn in front of a transmitting antenna of an F-14 radar... after 5 minutes...no joy or should I say no Jiff. RF energy...it's all F.M.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      R.F. Burns, 8 Feb 2006 @ 4:45am

      Re: need MO power

      not focused enough...funnel that into a metal enclosure (or an aluminum foil hat!) and it'll go off like a teenager....

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Topher3105, 8 Feb 2006 @ 5:52am

    Sad and scary

    This brings up probably the single biggest problem with the Internet. It's not security exploits and viruses, not phishing scams or malicious spyware, its the simple nature for humans to be gullible.
    People are quick to believe everything they read in a book, see on television, and apparently now, anything blogged or listed on the Internet.
    Is it that people are being knowingly or wantonly deceptive by fooling people, no. Its just that the Internet is an outlet for both brilliance and substantially more ignorance. People push their personal opinion onto other people because there is always a ready audience willing to gobble it up.
    Unfortunately, not everybody has a good rounded education or simply good common sense to weed through the chaff and find the truths and facts out there. They are quick to promote this ignorance by linking to it on their blogs or listing it in their "news" services.
    So, my advice is to take everything seen on the web with a big grain of salt. Even if you find a story corroborated on many other sites, understand that all these sites didn't independently come to the same conclusion, they are all commenting off the same source.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Justin, 8 Feb 2006 @ 6:09am

    Minimicrowave

    While there is little hope of cooking an egg with a cell phone, it is basically a mini-micorwave. A diogital phone transmitts at 850 & 1900 Mhz which is right in the microwave band. So the waves comming out of your celly ARE microwaves. The difference is that your cell transmits at about 1 watt, and your microwave oven is probably 1000 watts. So next time your on the phone for an hour, think of it as putting your head in the microwave oven for 36 seconds.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      randomboy, 8 Feb 2006 @ 7:24am

      Re: Minimicrowave

      Not really for 36 minutes since microwave radiation in an oven bounces around until it hits whatever you're cooking and heats it up, while about 75% of the radiation from your cell phone dissipates into thin air. So admitting that the power of the emitter is indeed one watt I'd say that talking on the phone for an hour is the equivalent of sticking your head in a microwave overn for no more than 6 seconds :)

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2006 @ 7:52am

      Re: Minimicrowave

      Cell phones do not transmit anywhere close to 1 watt.

      You can look them up on the FCC database. Half a watt is more like it.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      googly_eyes, 8 Feb 2006 @ 9:18am

      Re: Minimicrowave BZZZZZZZZT!!!

      More junk science Justin...

      Microwaves work at the 2.4GHz range - 2450 MHz to be specific - the dielectric heating frequency of water molecules (sugar and fat too).

      Here's the wikipedia article if you would care to check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven

      Thanks for playing though, and proving the point that we shouldn't always believe what we read....

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Sean, 7 Dec 2007 @ 6:12pm

        Re: Re: Minimicrowave BZZZZZZZZT!!!

        You say we shouldn't always believe what we read and then you cite a "Wikipedia" article as some kind of scientific reference. Wikipedia is the online equivalent of the writing on the inside of a toilet stall.

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    A Funny Guy / The Poison Pen, 8 Feb 2006 @ 8:39am

    No Subject Given

    Sits and gives his cell phone a long hard look.......


    Gives it another suspicious look and dials yet another number......

    Breakfast anyone?

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Gulliber, 25 Jun 2006 @ 10:05am

    micro-brains, anyone?

    Ohhh, I dare anyone to microwave their head for even six seconds.. I'm sure it would explode and make a hell of a mess. BTW, besides an egg cooker, a cell phone is an excellent mosquito repellant, and if you put it in your clothes dryer, your clothes will come out static free and april fresh! LMAO

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      js, 25 Oct 2006 @ 10:17pm

      Re: micro-brains, anyone?

      I tried and tried but I couldnt close the microwave
      door with my head in it.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    TechData, 28 Jun 2006 @ 9:08am

    Time will tell

    check back in 5,10,15 and 20 years. Maybe again in 30. The results will prove themselves.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Marrondinde, 7 Jul 2006 @ 11:25am

    Frying an egg with 2 cell phones

    So it is a hoax ? O.K. I accept. The experience seemed rather funny anyway since nobody will carry a conversation with two different phones on their ears... Nevertheless there are serious studies showing that using cell phones in excess has unpleasant side effects. If I speak longer than ten minutes with my cell phone my ear aches... and no matter what other people say, I don't enjoy staying on these phones. But for an emergency these phones are wonderful !

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mike, 23 Sep 2006 @ 4:55pm

    Need A Cooker? USE YOUR CELL PHONE

    http://www.rense.com/general72/cellcook.htm
    How Two Russian Journalists Cooked An Egg
    With Their Mobile Phones

    Many organizations including the cell phone industry often downplay the risk of cell phone radiation to the brain. Results from short-term studies were used to convince consumers that use of a cell phone is not associated with brain tumors or cancer, which only develop decades after exposure.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Oct 2007 @ 7:22pm

    can u believe this fwd is still making rounds?!

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jeff, 20 Feb 2008 @ 10:24am

    Going to do it myself

    I read the articles presented in this matter, and it looks to me like the Russians had one step that the Americaan did not include in their experiment. This being the stereo playing converstation in the background so that the cellphones would have something to transmit as well as recieve, which in my belief is an integeral part for the experiment to work.... cause who really just sits on there cell phone and doesnt gab a mile a minute. So I am going to do this experiment with in my office on Camera and then show it on fast action 10X play to really get down to the bottom of this!

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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