On Teaching Grasshoppers to Lip-Read

There is a story making the rounds, about a government laboratory which set out to perform a certain experiment concerning grasshoppers. The experiment comprised three phases. In the first, a grasshopper was placed on a table, and the experimenter pounded the table and yelled, “Jump!” Predictably, the grasshopper jumped. Next, the experimenter tore one leg off the grasshopper, put it back on the table, and yelled, “Jump!” This time the grasshopper moved rather lamely, and only a short distance. In the final stage, the experimenter tore off the grasshopper’s other leg. As before, it was placed on the table, and the experimenter repeated the command, “Jump!” The grasshopper remained motionless, confirming the researcher’s hypothesis: that grasshoppers hear through their legs.

In an apparently unrelated policy question, President Carter has urged all businessmen and workers to moderate their planned price increases and wage demands as the only way to combat inflation. Last spring he said that inflation comes about because “each group tries to raise its income to keep up with present and anticipated rising costs, and eventually we all lose the inflationary battle together.” To solve the problem of inflation, President Carter “expects industry and labor to keep wage and salary increases significantly below the average rate for the last two years.”

JJ

About the Author

James L. Johnston

Featured Tags

There is a story making the rounds, about a government laboratory which set out to perform a certain experiment concerning grasshoppers. The experiment comprised three phases. In the first, a grasshopper was placed on a table, and the experimenter pounded the table and yelled, “Jump!” Predictably, the grasshopper jumped. Next, the experimenter tore one leg off the grasshopper, put it back on the table, and yelled, “Jump!” This time the grasshopper moved rather lamely, and only a short distance. In the final stage, the experimenter tore off the grasshopper’s other leg. As before, it was placed on the table, and the experimenter repeated the command, “Jump!” The grasshopper remained motionless, confirming the researcher’s hypothesis: that grasshoppers hear through their legs.

In an apparently unrelated policy question, President Carter has urged all businessmen and workers to moderate their planned price increases and wage demands as the only way to combat inflation. Last spring he said that inflation comes about because “each group tries to raise its income to keep up with present and anticipated rising costs, and eventually we all lose the inflationary battle together.” To solve the problem of inflation, President Carter “expects industry and labor to keep wage and salary increases significantly below the average rate for the last two years.”