From: Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Date: Mon Apr 21 1997 - 20:16:25 MDT
Hal Dunn wrote:
>
> Anyone notice an "urban legend awareness" meme lately? A.K.A. the "Here's
> something else that didn't really happen" meme or the "Be careful what you
> THINK you know" meme.
>
> It's either:
>
> A. Just me.
>
> -or-
>
> B. There is a lot more awareness of urban myths and legends lately.
>
> The "urban" from urban legend comes from the idea that it is in the cities
> where there are a large number of people to spread them (transmitters or
> "vectors"). The same happens in the corporate workplace where there are a
> lot of people. And, now with the Internet there are a lot of people sharing
> info and spreading stories, some of which are urban myths, for example see
> the following list of urban myths that are false. My theory is that the
> Internet has also facilitated the spread of the "Here's something else that
> didn't really happen" meme.
>
> * The criminal ring of highly-skilled surgeons who steal kidneys from
> unsuspecting victims to sell on the black market.
No but the protocols that surgeons are using to determine when to start
taking organs shows that the drugs they give prior to "death" are not
helpful to the patient and prevent the patient from clotting any wounds,
and there have been documented cases of head trauma patients at the
Cleveland Center where the time listed on the death certificate as to
when the heart stopped beating was when it was cut out of the patient's
body. This sort of treatment is what engenders the far out stories like
you cited...
>
> * The homosexual act of sending a gerbil (or hamster) up a toilet-paper tube
> in the anus.
it was actually a stalinist torture method in eastern europe, and a
hungry rat was used...
>
> * The helicopter that fights forest fires by scooping water from lake.
> Charred body of scuba diver found in ashes.
>
> * People occasionally spontaneously combust and burn to death.
Cool.
>
> * The razor blade in the Halloween apples and other Halloween candy-tampering.
>
> * Snuff films exist.
What are they?
>
> * There are satanic symbols on the Proctor & Gamble logo.
>
> * Numerous Internet virus hoaxes.
>
> * Suicide rates go up around the holidays.
They actually go down.
>
> * Domestic violence goes up on Super Bowl Sunday.
I know, there were a lot of articles in the paper on this last
Superbowl, with interviews of people who run womens shelters saying that
this is true.
>
> * People are much loonier (e.g., shoot, screw, etc.) during a full moon.
>
> * "Blue star" or cartoon character (esp. Mickey Mouse) tattoos laced with
> LSD is sold at schools to hook kids on acid.
>
> * There was a fried rat served in a Kentucky-Fried Chicken restaurant.
>
> * Aspirin and Coca-Cola taken together get you high. (Nope. May cause insomnia.)
I haddn't heard that one, but I had heard that Mikey, the kid on the
Life cereal commercial, had died from eating Pop Rocks candy and
drinking Coca-Cola. False.
>
> * Henry Ford/Gen. Douglas McArthur/T. Edison/IBM Rep./et al. tests an
> interviewee by when they salt their food during lunch.
It was Howard Hughes, and it was steak at his casino in Las Vegas...
>
> * Albert Einstein did poorly in school.
Nah, he just didn't talk much till age three or four.
>
> * We only use 10% of our brain.
>
> * NASA did experiement on making love in zero gravity.
Actually a married pair of astronauts did go up 2 years ago, and were
supposed to be doing some "research" on it, at least according to what
the other astronauts said in interviews. If its false, we've got some
astronauts spreading disinformation...
>
> * No two snowflakes are alike.
You mean they've cloned snowflakes down to the atom?
>
Here's a real urban legend: people don't kill people, guns kill
people...
--
TANSTAAFL!!!
Michael Lorrey
------------------------------------------------------------
mailto:retroman@tpk.net Inventor of the Lorrey Drive
Agent Lorrey@ThePentagon.com
Silo_1013@ThePentagon.com http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/
Mikey's Animatronic Factory
My Own Nuclear Espionage Agency (MONEA)
MIKEYMAS(tm): The New Internet Holiday
Transhumans of New Hampshire (>HNH)
------------------------------------------------------------
#!/usr/local/bin/perl-0777---export-a-crypto-system-sig-RC4-3-lines-PERL
@k=unpack('C*',pack('H*',shift));for(@t=@s=0..255){$y=($k[$_%@k]+$s[$x=$_
]+$y)%256;&S}$x=$y=0;for(unpack('C*',<>)){$x++;$y=($s[$x%=256]+$y)%256;
&S;print pack(C,$_^=$s[($s[$x]+$s[$y])%256])}sub S{@s[$x,$y]=@s[$y,$x]}
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