As many of you know I receive hundreds of emails a day and many of them are “forwards” from friends who just have to know if something is real or not. I received one from a member of my family today that shows a video (see below) in which a couple of individuals have placed 4 kernels of unpopped popcorn in the middle of 4 cell phones and then they call the phones and viola! the corn pops! – let me just say, this is absurd! – if cell phones released that much EM energy then they would literally fry your brain, it wouldn't be over a long period of time, it would happen in a matter of minutes.
[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V94shlqPlSI]
It took me all of about 2 minutes of Googling to find enough evidence that this one is definitely a hoax:
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/06/cellphones-cant.html
http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2008/06/10/cell-phone-popcorn.htm
Regards,
jim®
Update #1: I just found this video link on CNN showing Cardo Systems CEO, Abraham Glezerman explaining that this was indeed a viral ad campaign and he reveals how they actually did the trick, and no it wasn’t a heating element under the table or even a microwave transmitter. You will have to watch the video to learn…
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/07/09/carroll.cellphone.popcorn.cnn
Regards,
jim®