Boobage alert - and possible earthquakes too!

Oh, boy, this should be fun . . .

I noted earlier this month that Iranian Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi had blamed inappropriately-dresssed women for earthquakes. According to a report in the Brisbane Times, he claimed:

"Many women who dress inappropriately ... cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes."

Well, one woman at least isn't taking that lying down. Jen McCreight of the Blag Hag has come up with a novel idea to test the Ayatollah's theory. She writes:

I have a modest proposal.

Sedighi claims that not dressing modestly causes earthquakes. If so, we should be able to test this claim scientifically. You all remember the homeopathy overdose?

Time for a Boobquake.

On Monday, April 26th, I will wear the most cleavage-showing shirt I own. Yes, the one usually reserved for a night on the town. I encourage other female skeptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts. Or short shorts, if that's your preferred form of immodesty. With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake. If not, I'm sure Sedighi can come up with a rational explanation for why the ground didn't rumble. And if we really get through to him, maybe it'll be one involving plate tectonics.

So, who's with me? I may be a D cup, but that will probably only produce a slight tremor on its own. If you'll be joining me on twitter, use the tag #boobquake! Or join the facebook event!

Her idea seems to have taken off like wildfire. As of the time of writing, the Facebook event page has 67,752 confirmed guests, and 267,387 people awaiting a reply! In a follow-up blog post, Ms. McCreight writes:

Holy crap.

So what started as a joke and somewhat sarcastic reply to the ludicrous notion that women's immodesty causes earthquakes has now exploded. Seriously, internet, you scare and amaze me sometimes. The Facebook event already has almost 14,000 attendees (and 60,000 invited) in just over 24 hours. The wall is getting comments so quickly that I had to disable Facebook email notifications because my inbox was getting flooded. The twitter stream for #boobquake is updating so quickly that I can't keep up. To top that off, I just got interviewed by the largest newspaper in Canada and some radio station in Ireland wants to interview me.

Because I made a boob joke.

There's more at the link, including her proposals for 'scientific' research after the event. Great fun! The comments on the Facebook page are even funnier (although many aren't safe for work, so I won't quote them here).

Congratulations to Ms. McCreight for an idea that seems to have taken on a life of its own. Thanks to her, the science of plate tectonics may never be the same again!



Peter