Saturday, July 31, 2010

Woman Sickened by Drug-Laced Paper (Kansas City)

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/07/30/2119098/urban-legend-tells-tale-about.html

The Kansas City Star [MO]
30 July 2010

Urban legend tells tale about woman getting sick from drug-laced paper

By TONY RIZZO
The Kansas City Star

A man’s effort to give his phone number to a woman he found “cute” was behind a widely disseminated e-mail about an incident in south Kansas City.

According to e-mail rumors, the incident involved a piece of paper laced with a drug that made the woman ill when she touched it — a scenario similar to previous “urban legends” in other jurisdictions.

Such a scenario was “highly, highly unlikely,” Kansas City Police Chief Jim Corwin reported on his online blog Friday. [...]

http://kcpdchief.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-really-happened-in-e-mail-thats.html

Chief Corwin's Blog
Kansas City Missouri Police Department

Friday, July 30, 2010

What really happened in e-mail that's going around

A scary e-mail about an incident in Kansas City has been making the rounds the last few days that bears a striking similarity to a popular urban legend. However, I did want to let you know that this incident really did happen, but we want to clarify some of the more scary parts. [...]

Monday, July 26, 2010

Cerne Abbas Giant 'Inspires' Fertility Boom

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7911292/Cerne-Abbas-Giant-inspires-fertility-boom.html

The Daily Telegraph [UK]
26 July 2010

Cerne Abbas Giant 'inspires' fertility boom

By Richard Alleyne

A giant chalk man carved into a west country hillside is living up to its legendary status as a figure of fertility by producing a baby boom in the surrounding area. [...]

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Bulldozer Left in Building's Basement (Moscow)

http://rt.com/prime-time/2010-07-22/ostankino-tv-center-history.html

RT [Russia]
22 July 2010

Ostankino TV tower: from fact to fiction

[...] According to an urban legend, workers even left a bulldozer somewhere in the basement [of a building in Moscow's Ostankino TV Center] – some say they simply forgot about it, others claim it was easier to dump it than to get it out of the foundations. [...]

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Monkey Soldiers Trained by Taliban

http://www.defence.pk/forums/world-affairs/63502-taliban-trains-monkey-terrorists-attack-u-s-troops.html

Pakistan Defence Forum
28 June 2010

Taliban trains 'monkey terrorists' to attack U.S. troops

Afghanistan's Taliban warlords have developed a bizarre way to deal with foreign forces: they have trained monkeys who love to eat bananas and peanuts to be killers.

Taliban forces have taught monkeys how to use the Kalashnikov, Bren light machine gun and trench mortars. They also teach them how to identify and attack soldiers wearing U.S. military uniforms. [...]

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/7059578.html

People's Daily [China]
9 July 2010

Monkeys trained as battlefield killers in Afghanistan

Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents are training monkeys to use weapons to attack American troops, according to a recent report by a British-based media agency. [...]

http://www.stripes.com/blogs/the-rumor-doctor/the-rumor-doctor-1.104348/are-taliban-training-monkeys-to-kill-u-s-troops-1.110933

Stars and Stripes 13 July 2010

THE RUMOR DOCTOR

Are Taliban training monkeys to kill U.S troops?

By Jeff Schogol

Could it possibly be true that the Taliban are training monkeys to fire heavy weapons at U.S. troops in Afghanistan? [...]

http://www.stripes.com/blogs/the-rumor-doctor/the-rumor-doctor-1.104348/is-photo-of-baboon-with-a-machine-gun-fake-1.111041

Stars and Stripes [US]
14 July 2010

THE RUMOR DOCTOR

Is Photo of Baboon with a Machine Gun Fake?

By Jeff Schogol

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Babe Ruth's Piano

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/features/x792538332/New-clues-restart-Sudbury-search-for-Babe-Ruths-piano

The MetroWest Daily News [Framingham, MA]
19 June 2010

New clues restart Sudbury search for Babe Ruth's piano

By Kathy Uek/Daily News staff

SUDBURY - For almost a decade, Sudbury resident Kevin Kennedy has searched for proof that Babe Ruth's upright piano sank to the bottom of Willis Pond. [...]

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/features/x2071993846/Veneer-could-be-key-to-Babe-Ruth-piano-mystery

The MetroWest Daily News [Framingham, MA]
22 June 2010

Veneer could be key to Babe Ruth piano mystery

By Kathy Uek/Daily News staff

SUDBURY - There may be a splinter of truth to the legend of the Sultan of Swat's piano.

Yesterday, a piano restoration expert confirmed that a 4-foot-by-16-inch wood panel discovered by divers in Willis Pond on Sunday is part of a piano. [...]

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/features/x104354946/Psychic-brought-in-to-find-Bambinos-piano
MetroWest Daily News [Framingham, MA]
9 July 2010
Psychic brought in to find Bambino's piano
By Hannah McGoldrick/Daily News correspondent

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

EU to Ban Selling Eggs by the Dozen

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1289882/EU-ban-selling-eggs-dozen-Shopkeepers-fury-told-food-weighed-sold-kilo.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

The Mail on Sunday [UK]
27 June 2010

EU to ban selling eggs by the dozen: Shopkeepers' fury as they are told all food must be weighed and sold by the kilo

By Christopher Leake

British shoppers are to be banned from buying eggs by the dozen under new regulations approved by the European Parliament. [...]

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/scrambled-ndash-the-eu-threat-to-british-eggs-2015264.html

The Independent [UK]
1 July 2010

Scrambled – the EU 'threat' to British eggs

The European Union will not outlaw the sale of groceries by quantity, despite scare stories to the contrary

By Martin Hickman

Look away Eurosceptics. Those meddling Brussels bureaucrats have let you down again and are not going to ban the sale of eggs by the dozen.

To the disappointment of red-top newspapers and irate contributors to talk radio, the European Union confirmed yesterday that MEPs had not voted to do away with a cherished feature of Great British life. [...]

Humans Turned Into Goats (Nigeria)

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/july/07/national-07-07-2010-021.htm

Daily Sun [Nigeria]
7 July 2010

Human beings-turned goats story, a hoax – Police

By VINCENT UKPONG KALU and MATTHEW DIKE

Yesterday morning, rumours spread like bush fire in the harmattan in Ojo, and other neighbouring towns in Lagos and Ogun States that seven human beings were turned to goats through esoteric means. The rumour also had it that the goats were detained in Ojo Police station. A motley crowd besieged the police station to witness the bizarre development. [...]

From one source to another, the story kept magnifying. It first started with a human being turning to a goat until it became seven goats turning to seven human beings. It was the subject of discussion at bus stops, inside commercial vehicles and markets with each source presenting different versions of the story. [...]

Child Abduction Rumor (Ireland)

http://www.leinsterexpress.ie/news/39No-truth39-in-abduction-rumours.6403916.jp

Leinster Express [Ireland]
7 July 2010

'No truth' in abduction rumours

By Staff Reporter

GARDAƍ have said there is "no truth" in a rumour which was circulating about an attempted child abduction in a shopping centre in Portlaoise in the past fortnight.

Rumours had circulated that there was an attempted abduction which led to a shopping centre being "locked down" due to the attempted abduction. It was claimed that the missing a child aged four was found in a dressing room with her hair cut, wearing a cap and completely different clothes. [...]

http://www.laois-nationalist.ie/tabId/153/itemId/2809/Garda-deny-child-abduction-rumours.aspx
Laois Nationalist [Ireland]
8 July 2010
GardaĆ­ deny child abduction rumours
By: Michael Tracey

Monday, July 5, 2010

Promoted Officer Owes Back Pay

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/column-8/column-8-20100705-zxi4.html

Sydney Morning Herald
6 July 2010

Column 8

[...] ''Your lovely story about the cakes and ale, especially the punchline, put me in mind of a delicious story I heard from the war,'' recalls Robert Gardiner, of Welshman's Reef, Victoria (Old Cambridge rules and cheeky students, Column 8, yesterday). ''It seems that a young officer was promoted to captain in 1941. During the celebrations his mates saw that this was gazetted in 1041. He applied for back pay and was credited £39,999. The sting was that as the only survivor of the Battle of Hastings, he was responsible for the loss of 20,000 horses at £2 each. Result - a debit of £1 pound.'' [...]

[See also Pass the Port: The Best After-dinner Stories of the Famous (Cirencester: Christian Brann, 1976), p. 62.]