Sex And The Snowed-In Cities: Why This Blizzard Could Cause A Baby Bump

[FLPanhandle]

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/23/463999193/sex-and-the-snowed-in-cities-why-this-blizzard-could-cause-a-baby-bump?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link



Forgive us if you've heard this (and heard it, and heard it) already: The East Coast is getting its fair share of snow this weekend.

If you have, chances are you've also heard another little anecdote. When folks get snowed in for a couple of days — the urban legend goes — the population in that area is likely to see a boost in births just nine months later. In other words: Blizzards might be prime baby-making time.

Well, it turns out there's some truth to that — and the phenomenon may not be limited just to snow storms.

"With low-level, low-severity storm advisories, we actually found an uptick in births nine months later. So, it was about a 2 percent increase with tropical storm watches," Richard Evans, a professor of economics at Brigham Young University, tells NPR's Michel Martin.

In 2008, together with Yingyao Hu and Zhong Zhao, Evans published what's considered the most definitive study yet on how catastrophic events affect birth rates. Prompted by anecdotal evidence around catastrophies — from the New York City blackout of 1965 to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing — they decided to conduct broader, more substantive research into the phenomenon. They compared storm advisory data with fertility data on the East Coast and regions of the Gulf Coast, looking especially at differences in severity.

And those differences in severity impacted their results. The bump in births didn't hold true across the board.

"The other thing we found — that is also intuitive, but no one had ever detected this before — was that, with the most severe storm warnings ... you get almost an equal decrease in births nine months later," Evans says. "And the story there is if you're running for your life, you can't make babies."

Still, Evans says this snow storm in particular may be of the baby-making variety.

"I think the blizzard that's hitting the East Coast right now is more like a low-severity storm advisory — in the sense that, for the most part, people are not being asked to evacuate, they're not running," he says. "They're just told to hunker down in their houses for the duration of the storm until everything can get plowed and back to normal."

And as the danger diminishes, what else remains?

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I guess we know what you northeastern DU members have been doing this weekend.

[underpants]

1. Much better than the snowstorm in 1979 that created a huge bump in NASCAR popularity

The 1979 Daytona 500 was the first 500-mile race to be broadcast in its entirety live on national television in the United States.[3][4] Races were shown on television but as an example, the Indianapolis 500 was broadcast on tape delay later in the evening on the day it was run, in this era, and usually in edited form. Most races aired during this period were only broadcast starting with the final quarter to half of the race, as was the procedure for ABC's IndyCar broadcasts on their Wide World of Sports program.

CBS signed a new contract with NASCAR to telecast the race. Ken Squier and David Hobbs were the booth announcers with Ned Jarrett and Brock Yates[5] in the pits for that race. The day was fortunate for CBS as a major snowstorm known as the Presidents Day Snowstorm of 1979 bogged down most of the Northeast and parts of the Midwestern United States, increasing the viewership of the event. The race introduced two new innovative uses of TV cameras: The "in-car" camera and the low angle "speed shot", which are now considered standard in all telecasts of auto racing. Motor Racing Network was broadcasting the race on the radio, and their broadcasters included Barney Hall, Mike Joy and Dick Berggren.[2]

Link

[FLPanhandle]

2. Very cool

The things I learn from people here never ceases to amaze me.

[CTyankee]

3. It makes some sense. If there is no fear or threat a snow storm can be an event you can

hunker down in, drink some hot chocolate, relax and be content to just wait it out. Very conducive to lovemaking...why not?

[Bettie]

4. It happens

in our town we have one really large class in the elementary school (I think they are in 6th grade now)...all born about 9 months after ice storms that had us all stuck inside for days.