There was a "do not insert hand/foot/body part" warning card shoved into the blender we bought last night. I'd say a warning on the front of 1984 wouldn't be all that batty...
I spent a second thinking about what body part you could insert that wasn't hand or foot. I immediately doubled over in sympathetic pain. Well played, sir.
Because the publishers felt they didn't need to put "THIS IS NOT AN INSTRUCTION MANUAL" on the front cover of the book.
They're regretting that decision now.
"If the press writes about something long enough and hard enough, eventually it comes true"
They have that kind of superpower and are using it for an iPhone? What about cold fusion, hovercars, faster-than-light travel, and decent tasting frozen dinners?
Oh, and that world peace stuff, too, I guess.
but in reality 99.9999% of people would not be able to do this.
Your numbers leave ~7000 people who would do it. I'd say that's enough to attempt a colony.
Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?