Beard-Stroking Internet Fun

So, what has happened in the world that has caused seven people to land here in the last couple of days after searching various engines for some combination of "carrot", "stick", "donkey", and "dangling"? I recall a similar thing happening right after I wrote this. The searchers that last time were all from Great Britain or Germany, and all came knocking in the space of two or three days. This time around, I have been visited by folks from some disparate places as:

Florida International University, Miami
Peterborough Regional College, Reading, England
Detroit
Dallas
Australia
Utica, New York
and
William Beaumont Hospital, Detroit

Is NPR mis-using the term again? Was there some sort of Correspondence Course homework assignment? Why this confluence?