September 19, 2003
Friday Quiz #78: Brain-teaser Booty

Avast ye, scurvy sea-wombats! It's talk like a pirate day.

But I can't keep up the peg-leg patois for the quiz question, so you'll just have to save the Long John Silverisms for your Arr-guments in the comments. Here's today's question.

In 1961 the government began a project which investigated the effects of the chemical silver iodide on specially selected subjects who met particular criteria. The last subject of the experiments, tested in 1971, was known to the experimenters as "Ginger." The project was discontinued after it was decided that there was not enough real understanding of the effects.

What did the experimenters hope to show the chemical did to the subjects?

First correct answer posted to comments wins the uniball pen whose ink cartridge was exhausted yesterday as I signed my life over to a bank in exchange for six rooms, a set of keys, and a few cubic meters of storage space. No Googling or ringing up the fellows at the Smoking Gun. One guess per comment, please, but comment as often as you like.

Posted by BT at September 19, 2003 11:26 AM
Comments

Hey, congratulations on the house!

As to the quiz:
It boosted the intelligence of chimps. (Or maybe just made the chimps talk like pirates.)

Posted by: Gavin on September 19, 2003 11:34 AM

Turned their pee green! Um, arr.

Posted by: hackly_fracture on September 19, 2003 11:37 AM

Magnetize them.

Posted by: KF on September 19, 2003 11:38 AM

Yes, congrats.

I'm guessing that the subjects were hurricanes. I think that silver iodide was used at point to try to seed clouds to create rain. Putting 1 and 2 together, I think perhaps the idea was to try to get hurricanes to spend themselves out at sea, rather than covering my yard with leaves, and, south of here and years in my past, uprooting a whole lot of trees in Williamsburg, where they just slurped, according to reports, right out of the soft ground.

Posted by: Scott on September 19, 2003 11:39 AM

You've got to get up pretty early in the morning to beat Scott. Project Stormfury did pretty much exactly what he describes -- or tried to do it, with zero success. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum for our wind-whipped friend. Details are here:

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hrd_sub/sfury.html

Incidentally, NOAA offers a number of illuminating commentaries on such subjects as why we don't just freaking NUKE the hurricanes, and also why it's a waste of time taping up your windows:

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/C7.html

Posted by: BT on September 19, 2003 12:06 PM

Garr, it made 'em see in the darrkk.

Posted by: Jonathan on September 19, 2003 12:07 PM

Oh, and thanks for the congratulations, folks. Now we just have to get the painting and floor finished on time, pack up, and move. Next Friday, I believe the Mighty Boxjam will be our host while I transfer the HQ to our new, more spacious quarters.

Posted by: BT on September 19, 2003 12:08 PM

Oh, good. I couldn't keep that up for long. A bit more of that and my cucbicle mates would haul me out of the foc'sle and string me from the yardarm.

Posted by: Jonathan on September 19, 2003 12:10 PM

Rum makes me barf. I'd have made a bad pirate. Though if I could have just raided the coast of Scotland and had Scotch Whisky instead, I might have been OK.

Posted by: Scott on September 19, 2003 12:14 PM