An irate Tampa, Fla., woman who tried to kill the roach by tossing a motorcycle helmet at it and instead broke her TV set demanded that Atlanta-based Orkin buy her a new one. Another man said his set was damaged after he threw a shoe at it. OMG!!! How can you blame someone for not knowing the difference between TV & real? (must sound strange, coming from me.)

Anyway, it's an fascinating thing, Storm. There is still a difference though, these people were taken by surprise, and thought that the cockroach was a real one on their tv screen. (Must have been rather stupid people, or a very well made commercial. Yikes. Now I want to watch it!!! Sad it aired before the YouTube-era. :d) When encountering a cockroach in the virtual world, we _know_ it is virtual. It's inside our pc. No mistake possible? It's like Gweneth says, she knows it's 'just pixels'. And still triggers... . I don't think those people would have thrown their - respectively - motorcycle helmet and shoe at it if they had known from the start that it was a 2D cockroach, a TV fragment and not a real one? (Or at least, I hope that.)

Yet, on the other hand, I have wanting to throw stuff at TV shows when people say really stupid things. But still, it's a difference? Knowing it's virtual, 'not real life real' and still triggering the phobia, opposed to a panic reaction that is caused because they assume it is a real, physical insect?