The Straight Dope 10/28/2005

The Straight Dope -- By Cecil Adams
http://www.straightdope.com

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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 10/28/2005

Dear Cecil:

I am wondering if it's true that there are, or were, inbred
families or communities that live(d) in the Ozark Mountains.
Was it just the movie Deliverance that led people to believe
that? --Josh from Montreal

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Cecil replies:

I hope not, because the Ozarks and the setting of James
Dickey's 1970 novel Deliverance, source of the 1972 movie,
are two different places. Much of the action in Deliverance
takes place along the fictional Cahulawassee River,
generally thought to be based in large part on the Chattooga
River, which forms a length of the hilly border between
Georgia and South Carolina. The Ozark Mountains are located
mainly in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. Though
united by the wide belief that the south + hill country =
inbred degenerates, the Ozarks and the Chattooga are
separated by roughly 500 miles, several states, and the
Mississippi River.

What you're thinking of is the Appalachian Mountains, which
extend nearly 2,000 miles from Alabama to Newfoundland and
encompass the Chattooga watershed. Northerners, evidently
including Canadians, figure the southern end of the range is
crammed with mental defectives, an assumption worth
examining. If you don't mind, therefore, we'll restructure
your question along slightly more scientific lines: Is
southern Appalachia characterized by an unusually high
incidence of (a) inbreeding and (b) mental retardation and
genetic defects, and if so, has (a) led to (b)? For reasons
to become apparent, we'll start not at the beginning or end
of this question, but in the middle.

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/051028.html

STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

What is diplomatic immunity? I've heard it bandied about in
books and TV shows and movies, generally given as the reason
that the good-guy cop can't arrest the bad guy, even though
the bad guy has just committed some heinous crime. The bad
guy generally delivers some line like "You can't touch me!
I've got diplomatic immunity!" Does that mean that being a
diplomat in a foreign country gives people the right to
commit any crime they want, without fear of any legal
retribution? Surely not, or diplomat would be a much more
popular career choice. --Jon in Dallas

Guest contributor bricker replies:

There are several kinds of criminal immunity--that is,
exemption from criminal liability granted by law or
procedure to a person or class of people. For example,
people who've been acquitted of a crime are immune from a
second prosecution for that same crime. A judge may grant
witnesses immunity from prosecution in exchange for
testimony. 

Diplomatic immunity is another form of this exemption. It
applies to diplomats in their host countries, and ensures
that those diplomats may not be criminally prosecuted by the
host country for any violations of the host country's laws. 

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdiploimmunity.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 10/12/1984

Dear Cecil: 

The enclosed clipping from Glamour talks about a miraculous
headache cure involving something called "auto-acupressure."
Supposedly there's this special spot located at the base of
the web between the thumb and the forefinger, and if you
squeeze it long enough your headache disappears. Well, I had
a mild headache the other night, so I did like it said, and
sure enough, the pain seemed to go away, for a little while,
anyway. What's the deal? Is this just another example of the
power of suggestion? Or is it like when you go to the
dentist and you pinch yourself to distract yourself from the
pain? Or is there actually some remote control switch in
your thumb that turns off headaches? Which brings up another
topic--do I correctly deduce that there's some connection
between "auto-acupressure" and acupuncture? And why does
acupuncture work, huh, Cecil? --Ramona F., Los Angeles 

Cecil replies:  

Ramona, if you ask any more questions, I'm
going to need a headache cure myself. No entirely
satisfactory explanation for acupuncture has yet been
offered, but studies have shown that the needles somehow
stimulate the production of brain chemicals called
endorphins, which are natural opiates that the brain
generates to numb itself out to pain. Other research
indicates there may be some sort of nervous connection
between internal organs and various areas on the skin
surface. Acupuncture expert Dr. C.W. Liu theorizes that
nerves from different parts of the body enter the central
nervous system at common junction points, and that the
acupuncture needles blow the fuse, so to speak, for a
particular collection of nerve fibers. (This is ridiculously
oversimplified, you realize.) Thus needles stuck in your
fingers, for instance, may knock out sensation in your face.
This notion has yet to be proven, and there are a lot of
people who think the whole acupuncture business is malarkey.
But there are a fair number of scientists and doctors who
believe it really does work. 

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_414b.html

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