Wreck. Rebuild. Repeat.

Seventy thousand people come to Disaster City every year, but they never stay for long. The place is strewn with burnt and broken furniture, crushed cars, and scattered garbage. Ruined children's toys can be seen in particularly ghastly areas, and elsewhere you might catch a glimpse of a severed limb. Mercifully, Disaster City is not a proper city at all, but a massive emergency simulator that stretches across 120 acres. The brainchild of George Bennett, the dean of engineering at the colossal Texas A&M University, Disaster City is intended to train firefighters and rescue workers from around the world and therefore must be as convincing as possible.

Bennett first conceived the idea for the City in 1998, after the Oklahoma City federal building was bombed. The tragedy convinced Bennett of the importance of a training ground where people could learn to navigate rubble and rescue survivors as quickly as possible. Disaster City features mock-ups of collapsed malls, factories, office buildings, parking garages, and even a ship. Each day, volunteers are given realistic make-up "wounds" and head to the City to take part in the training exercises. Mannequins are used in the place of corpses. Visiting firefighters will scour the debris for the concealed volunteers and learn how to operate the equipment necessary to free them.

Humans aren't the only ones that receive training either. Various organizations, including the Department of Engineering at Texas A&M, have used Disaster City to test experimental robots intended to venture into areas too dangerous for rescue workers. Rescue dogs are also brought to the City to sniff out "survivors."

The entire site cost $7.7 million and it provides invaluable experience to people from all over the globe, so that when tragedy strikes, they will be well prepared to help save lives. Compare this cost to $237 million budget of Avatar and contemplate the bizarre priorities of America.

Would you like to know more?

-Visit Disaster City's official website

-Read this article from Der Spiegel

-Watch this short informational video

The Phantom Broadcast

KLEE-TV was the first television station in Houston, Texas, and the 12th in the nation. Constructed in 1949, it was purchased one year later by the publishers of the Houston Post to compliment their radio station. In light of this change in management, the station's call letters were later changed KPRC-TV.

Nothing worthy of the Hyper-Kitchen's notice happened at station KPRC until 1953, when they received a letter from Britain addressed to the "president of KLEE." Enclosed was a photograph of a television set displaying the KLEE station identification card. The accompanying letter explained that the picture was taken on September 14th, 1953 and requested an explanation. The station was baffled. Disregarding that the signal could not have possibly travelled all the way to the UK, and that American and British television receivers were incompatible, the KLEE identification card had not been used since the Post had bought the station.

The photographs were examined and deemed genuine. As various engineers and television experts tried to determine how the incident had happened, word got out. An article was written about the KLEE photo in a 1958 issue of Reader's Digest, and C.B. Colby devoted a chapter to KLEE in his 1959 book "Strangely Enough!". From there the story spread via word of mouth, and as per usual, was distorted with each retelling. Certain facts were ignored and fallacies were inserted. The details of the case were exaggerated; now the KLEE ID card had been seen by "viewers in many parts of England" and KLEE had been "off the air for years." It had developed a feel similar to a ghost story, with a phantom broadcast in the place of any undead specter. Perhaps this is why the story has endured for so long.

The staff at KPRC responded to the letter they received, asking for more information. The response was bizarre; little more than an advertisement for a mythical "super-heterodyne" television set that could receive signals over vast distances. Comparing notes with other television stations across the country, KPRC found that the others had received similar letters and photographs, and concluded that an unknown party in Britain had concocted the stunt to scam people into purchasing their non-existent "super-heterodyne" television sets. Whoever they were, they were relying upon out-of-date information, which explained why the picture showed the KLEE ID card and not KPRC.


It is deeply unfortunate that such a strange little mystery must be revealed as a mere hoax. The old phrase "the truth is stranger than fiction," is not so often the case.



Would you like to know more?
-The ever-intrepid Snopes.Com examines KLEE
-For whatever its worth, the official site of KPRC-TV, formerly KLEE-TV
-Buy C.B Colby's "Strangely Enough!" for a single cent (a steal)