October 19, 2002

12:48 PM

This news item turned out to be a hoax. Has Reuters been fooled again? I certainly smell a rat... (I know the original mefi link pointed to the BBC, but the BBC picked it up from Reuters)
posted by titboy (10 comments total)

What's the point in speculating? Somebody at Reuters, or the feeder news source that gathered the story, has either attempted to phone this Naval and Veterans' Hospital in Athens to confirm that it exists, that the researchers exist and that the findings exist, or they have not. If they have not, someone very shortly will.
posted by George_Spiggott at 1:12 PM on October 19, 2002

Yeah, I thought that when I read it...
posted by Orange Goblin at 1:34 PM on October 19, 2002

It's legit, unless a respected medical journal has been spoofed as well. Here's a link to the abstract:
'Size of external genital organs and somatometric parameters among physically normal men younger than 40 years old '
posted by Owen Boswarva at 1:35 PM on October 19, 2002

But I've already donated a couple of these! At least, that's what the man in the grey trenchcoat told me we were doing.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 1:38 PM on October 19, 2002

It's genuine. The full title is: "Size of external genital organs and somatometric parameters among physically normal men younger than 40 years old." Guess Reuters had to dumb it down.
posted by carter at 1:39 PM on October 19, 2002

So does this mean I can look forward to a new wave of spam selling me techniques guaranteed to increase the length of my index finger?
posted by carter at 1:41 PM on October 19, 2002

"We realize that the study population was relatively inadequate..."

That's what she said.
posted by electro at 2:09 PM on October 19, 2002

the team measured the flaccid, gently stretched penis, which they note is statistically correlated to erect penis length

So they yanked on how many wankers? In the name of science? Oh yeah. Guess the scientists couldn't be sexy babes otherwise there would be a misleading misreading. And shrinkage? Does that factor in? Dang, I suddenly have a million questions and no penis of my own.

Guess I have to go wake up my partner and tell him we need to play "the scientist and the volunteer".
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 2:15 PM on October 19, 2002

'gently stretched'? 'flacid maximally stretched'?
who or what does the stretching, gripping what? how do you know when to stop stretching it? when the owner cries like a seagull?

maybe you can get this kind of treatment at pandora's box? (poss. nsfw)
posted by asok at 2:48 PM on October 19, 2002

News flash: People with large body parts have other large body parts. Wait, you mean the 7' tall guy whose hand is larger than my face may have a bigger dick than me?

Also, if like me you have next to no knowledge of statistics, this article may be helpful in decoding the results of the full study.
posted by Hildago at 3:42 PM on October 19, 2002